••••••••I 


3 


3-3, 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


PERSONAL  AND    IDEAL  ELEMENTS 
IN    EDUCATION 


PERSONAL  AND 

IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN 

EDUCATION 


BY 

HENRY   CHURCHILL   KING 

'</ 

PRESIDENT  OF  OBERLIN  COLLEGE;  AUTHOR  OF  "  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  THEOLOGY' 

"THEOLOGY  AND  THE  SOCIAL  CONSCIOUSNESS" 


THIRD  EDITION 


fork 
THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON  :    MACMILLAN   &   CO.,  LTD. 

1915 
All  rights  ritervtd 


COPYRIGHT,  1904 
BY  THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  October,  1904 

October,  1908;  November,  1915 


tftonttt  IflraHani  Jlrr«0 

J.  Horace  McFarland  Co. 

Harriiburg,  Pa. 


PREFACE 

OUR  age,  as  has  been  truly  said,  is  so 
strongly  characterized  by  "  a  stupendous 
reliance  upon  the  trustworthiness  of  ma- 
chinery" that  one  can  hardly  doubt  that 
there  is  constant  need  of  emphasis  upon 
the  personal  and  ideal  elements  of  life. 
Both  the  scientific  and  the  industrial  expan- 
sion of  our  time,  which  involve  such  uni- 
versal use  of  the  mechanical  as  to  both 
means  and  point  of  view,  are  so  impressive 
that  we  are  unconsciously  drawn  into  an 
overestimation  of  mere  mechanism.  And  we 
are  thus  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  in  edu- 
cation, in  ethics,  in  religion,  and  in  all  true 
living,  it  is  still  true  that  the  most  impor- 
tant facts  are  persons;  and  that  "a  man's 
life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  which  he  possesseth."  Not  in  one- 
sided reaction  against  the  mechanical  view, 
then,  but  in  full  recognition  of  the  indis- 

(v) 


VI  PREFACE 

pensableness  of  mechanism  everywhere,  we 
yet  have  great  need  to  insist  that  mechanism 
is  to  be  completely  subordinated  to  the  per- 
sonal and  ideal  interests  of  life  ;  that  in  the 
making  of  men  we  must  take  into  account 
the  entire  man  in  the  whole  range  of  his 
interests,  and  must  see  that  the  personal 
factor  is  of  supreme  importance. 

These  convictions  underlie  all  the  ad- 
dresses which  make  up  this  book,  and  may 
serve  to  justify  its  title ;  and  the  addresses 
are  here  brought  together,  thus,  because 
it  is  hoped  that  they  will  be  found  to  have 
some  real  unity,  pertinence,  and  sugges- 
tion. At  the  same  time,  this  very  fact 
involves  some  repeated  use  of  similar  lines 
of  thought. 

The  addresses  can  hardly  fail  to  have  the 
unity  that  arises  from  an  emphasis  upon  the 
same  great  principles  applied  to  related  but 
different  important  problems :  the  problem 
of  college  education ;  the  problem  of  the 
fundamental  relation  of  religion  to  educa- 
tion, ethics,  and  life ;  the  problem  of  the  ed- 


PREFACE  vii 

ucational  side  of  religion ;  the  problem  of  a 
psychological  comparison  of  educational  and 
evangelistic  methods  in  religious  work;  and 
the  problem  of  the  conditions  of  individual 
ethical  attainment.  In  these  varied  discus- 
sions I  express  my  conviction  that  college 
education  cannot  hope  either  to  retain  or 
regain,  as  the  case  may  be,  its  important 
place  in  the  national  life,  except  as  it  recog- 
nizes itself  as  giving  preeminently  the  supreme 
training  of  the  entire  man  for  living ;  that 
our  life,  individual  and  national,  must  suffer 
if  we  do  not  recognize  the  essentially  fun- 
damental nature  of  religion ;  that  religious 
education  itself  can  only  count  as  it  ought, 
when  its  breadth  and  its  preeminently  per- 
sonal character  are  clearly  recognized ;  that 
real  justice  can  be  done  to  the  different 
methods  naturally  used  in  religious  work  only 
by  a  careful  psychological  study;  and  that, 
as  the  mechanical  view  everywhere  requires 
an  ideal  view  to  complete  it,  so,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  the  attainment  of  high  character, 
the  definite  physical  and  psychological  con- 


viii  PREFACE 

ditions  involved  in  our  natures  cannot  be 
overlooked.  The  immediate  practical  nature 
of  the  last  address  will  be  pardoned. 

All  the  discussions,  I  trust,  may  be  found 
to  have,  also,  some  special  pertinence  at  the 
present  time,  in  view  of  the  serious  ques- 
tions raised  concerning  the  precise  function 
of  college  education,  and  in  view  of  the 
awakened  interest  in  religious  needs,  and  in 
the  educational  side  of  religion. 

For  the  very  reason  that  the  problems 
discussed  are  in  no  case  without  some 
special  difficulty,  and  because  the  attempt  is 
made  to  apply,  in  their  discussion,  principles 
that  seem  in  real  danger  of  being  too  much 
overlooked,  it  may  be  hoped  that  the  treat- 
ment of  the  problems  may  have,  too,  some 
real  suggestiveness. 

HENRY  CHURCHILL  KING. 
OBERLIN  COLLEGE,  September,  1904. 


CONTENTS 

PACK 

THE  PRIMACY  OF  THE  PERSON  IN  COLLEGE  EDUCATION   ....  i 

Inaugural  Address  as  President  of  Oberlin  College,  May 
13,  1903. 

I.    The  Function  of  College  Education 4 

II.    The  Great  Means  in  College  Education 36 

1.  A  Complex  Life 36 

2.  Expressive  Activity 52 

3.  Personal  Association 58 

III.    The  Requisite  Spirit  in  College  Education 63 

THE  FUNDAMENTAL  NATURE  OF  RELIGION 71 

An  Address  delivered  at  the  Congress  of  Arts  and  Sciences, 
in  the  Department  of  Religion,  Universal  Exposition, 
St.  Louis,  September  20,  1904. 

I.    Religion  and  Education 72 

1.  Aims 72 

2.  Means  and  Spirit 73 

3.  Method 77 

4.  Results 82 

II.    Religion  and  Ethics 83 

1.  Ethics  Involves  Religion 84 

2.  Relation  to  God  the  One  Essential  Relation    .    .  84 

3.  The  Laws  of  Our  Nature,   as  a  Divine  Mani- 

festation    85 

4.  The  Religious  Basis  of  Our  National  Life  ...  87 


X  CONTENTS 

PACK 

III.    Religion  and  Life 89 

i.  Religious    Faith    Logically   Underlies    all    Rea- 
soning    90 

z.  Religious   Faith   Logically   Underlies  all   Work 

Worth  Doing 91 

3.  Religious  Faith  Logically  Underlies  all  Strenu- 

ous Moral  Endeavor 93 

4.  Religious  Faith  Logically  Underlies  all  Earnest 

Social  Service 95 

RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  AS  CONDITIONED  BY  MODERN  PSYCHOLOGY 

AND  PEDAGOGY 105 

An  Address  delivered  at  the  First  Convention  of  the  Re- 
ligious Education  Association,  Chicago,  February  n, 
1903. 

I.    Association 112 

1.  Need  of  Society  as  Such 112 

2.  Introduction   to    Great   Interests  through   Asso- 

ciation    114 

3.  Faith  and  Life  through  Association 115 

4.  Personal  Witness  to  the  Great  Interests    ....  116 

II.    Work 119 

1.  Muscular  Activity  and  Character 120 

2.  Health  in  Character 120 

3.  The  Realization  of  Aims 120 

4.  The  Organized  Service  of  Others 121 

5.  Simple  Unselfish  Living 122 

6.  Religious  Expression  of  the  Christian  Life  .   .  123 

III.    The  Spirit  of  Religious  Education 126 

1.  Reverence  for  the  Value  and  Sacredness  of  the 

Person 126 

2.  The  Mood  of  Objectivity 127 


CONTENTS  XI 

» 

PAGE 

CHRISTIAN  TRAINING  AND  THE  REVIVAL  AS  METHODS  OF  CON- 
VERTING  MEN:    A    HISTORICAL   AND    PSYCHOLOGICAL 

STUDY 129 

Addresses  delivered  before  the  Sixth  Annual  Conference  of 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  Volunteer  Workers,  Lake  Geneva,  Wis- 
consin, August  6-7,  1903. 

I.    The  Pressure  of  the  Question 129 

II.    The  Causes  of  the  Changed  Feeling  Concerning  Re- 
vival Methods 132 

1.  Not  Unevangelical,  or  Old-School,  Objections  to 

Revivals 132 

2.  Disappointment  in  Results 133 

3.  Sense  of  Artificial  Attempt  to  Work  Men  up  to 

a  Certain  State  of  Feeling 133 

4.  Fear  of  the  Unconventional  and  of  Extremes  .   .  133 

5.  Our  Age  a  Transitional  Age 135 

6.  A  Changed  View  of  What  Constitutes  the  Char- 

acteristic Marks  of  the  Divine  Working  .    .  .  140 

7.  A  More  Ethical  Conception  of  Christianity  .    .   .  142 

8.  Emphasis  upon  External  Action 142 

III.  Our  Problem 144 

IV.  Opposing  Solutions 146 

V.    Temperamental  Differences 148 

1.  Illustrated  in  Other  Spheres 148 

2.  Temperamental  Differences  in  Religion    .   .   .  156 

VI.    Is  Suddenness  a  Sure  Mark  of  the  Divine  Working?  .  162 

1.  Why  Suddenness  is  not  to  be  Emphasized  .    .   .  162 

2.  The  True  Tests  of  Religious  Experience  ....  164 

3.  Why  Suddenness  Still  Seems  Significant  ....  169 


Xli  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

VII.    The  Dangers  of  Merely  Educational  Methods  ....  176 

1.  Over-emphasis  upon  the  Intellectual  Side     .    .   .  176 

2.  Lack  of  a  Powerful  Grip  through   Feeling  upon 

the  Life 178 

3.  Losing  the  Sense  of  God  in  It  All 179 

4.  The     Danger    of     Losing     a     Deep    Significant 

Inner     Life     as    the     Support    of     all     Outer 

Activity 181 

5.  Ignoring  Basic  Temperamental  Differences  ...  182 

VIII.    The  Dangers  of  the  Revival  Method 184 

1.  Demanding   One    Type   of   Experience  from  all 

Men 184 

2.  Dangers    that     Naturally    Attend     Sudden    and 

Marked  Experiences 186 

3.  A  Superstitious  View  of  the  Work  of  the   Spirit 

of  God 188 

4.  Danger  of  Failure  in  Reverence  for  the  Person  .  191 

IX.    The  Need  of  Christian  Training 198 

1.  Personal  Association  and  Expressive  Activity  .    .  198 

2.  Need    of    Education    for    Preparation    and    for 

Appreciation  of  Spiritual  Experiences    ....  201 

3.  Need   of  a  Deep  Acquaintance  with  Our  Own 

Time 202 

X.    The  Need  of  the  Revival 217 

1.  Temperamental  Differences 219 

2.  A  Real  Contribution  to  Make  to  Us  All  ....  220 

3.  Important  Place  of  Feeling  in  All  Life   ....  227 

XI.    Religion  as  a  Personal  Relation,  as  Combining  Both 

Points  of  View 229 


CONTENTS  Xlll 

PAGE 

How  TO  MAKE  A  RATIONAL  FIGHT  FOR  CHARACTER 236 

An  Address   delivered  before   the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Students' 
Conference,  Northneld,  Massachusetts,  July  4,  1901. 

I.    Everything  at  Stake  in  Temptation 237 

II.    Keeping  Oneself  Persistently  at  One's  Best 239 

III.  Need  of   Considering  Conditions   Under  Which  We 

Live 240 

1.  Bodily 240 

2.  Mental 245 

3.  Of  Association 247 

IV.  Self-control  Always  Positive 248 

1.  Must  Seek  Positive  Help  from  Body 248 

2.  Control  of  the  Emotions  Always  Indirect     .    .   .  250 

3.  Replacing  the  Tempting  Thought 253 

4.  Taking  Account  of  the  Impulsiveness  of  Con- 

sciousness     254 

5.  Resisting  the  Evil  with  the  Good 258 

V.    That  Which  is  Unexpressed  Dies 259 

VI.    Influence  of  Previous  Persistent  Association  with  the 

Best 262 

VII.    Additional  Considerations  ...  .  266 


PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL  ELEMENTS 
IN  EDUCATION 


THE   PRIMACY  OF  THE    PERSON    IN 
COLLEGE   EDUCATION 

THE  numerous  inaugurations  of  college 
presidents  in  the  last  three  or  four  years 
have  necessarily  called  out  extended  discus- 
sions of  educational  aims.  A  late-comer  in 
the  field  hardly  feels  at  liberty  to  ignore, 
and  he  certainly  does  not  wish  merely  to 
repeat,  what  has  been  already  well  said.  To 
a  certain  extent  he  must  probably  do  both; 
for  he  can  hardly  contribute  more  than  his 
individual  viewpoint,  and  may,  perhaps,  count 
himself  fortunate  if,  taking  advantage  of  the 
discussions  of  his  predecessors,  he  can  by  a 
single  degree  advance  to  greater  clearness 
the  exact  problem  of  college  education. 
But  he  may  still  find  encouragement  to 
d) 


2         PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

believe  that  the  task  naturally  set  him  is  not 
wholly  useless,  when  he  remembers  that,  in 
spite  of  a  considerable  consensus  of  opinion 
on  the  part  of  college  presidents  as  to  what 
a  college  education  in  general  ought  to  be, 
the  problem  of  the  precise  place  of  the  col- 
lege in  our  actual  educational  system  has 
perhaps  never  been  at  a  more  critical  stage 
than  now.  That  at  least  an  increasing  num- 
ber of  thoughtful  observers  feel  this  to  be 
the  case,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  President 
Butler  only  voices  the  fear  of  many  when  he 
says:  "The  American  college  hardly  exists 
nowadays,  and,  unless  all  signs  mislead,  those 
who  want  to  get  it  back  in  all  its  useful 
excellence  will  have  to  fight  for  it  pretty 
vigorously.  The  milk-and-water  substitutes, 
and  the  fiat  universities  that  have  taken  the 
place  of  the  colleges,  are  a  pretty  poor 
return  for  what  we  have  lost." 

For  the  rapid  changes  that  have  taken 
place  in  college  education  in  the  last 
twenty-five  years  have  carried  with  them,  in 
many  quarters  at  least,  unforeseen  and  far- 


THE    PRIMACY  OF    THE    PERSON  3 

reaching  consequences.  The  study  of  these 
consequences  has  brought  to  some  of  the 
most  careful  students  of  education,  with  what- 
ever recognition  of  gain,  a  distinct  sense  of 
loss,  most  definitely  expressed,  perhaps,  by 
Dean  Briggs  in  his  "Old-fashioned  Doubts 
Concerning  New-fashioned  Education." 

Other  changes  in  other  departments  of 
education  have  greatly  complicated  the  prob- 
lem of  the  relation  of  the  different  members 
of  our  educational  system.  Revolutionary 
changes,  that  seem  almost  if  not  quite  to 
involve  the  elimination  of  the  college,  are 
soberly,  even  if  reluctantly,  suggested  by  dis- 
tinguished educators.  And  other  changes  of 
relations  that  appear  at  first  sight  less  serious, 
in  which  the  colleges  themselves  are  acqui- 
escing, may  in  the  end  make  any  adequate 
attainment  of  the  older  college  ideal  equally 
impossible.  The  result  of  the  entire  situation, 
therefore,  is  to  press  today  upon  American 
educators,  as  never  before,  these  questions: 
Has  the  American  college  a  real  function,  a 
logical  and  vital  place  in  a  comprehensive 


4        PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS    IN  EDUCATION 

system  of  education?  or  is  it  the  blunder  of  a 
crude  time  and  a  crude  people,  an  illogical 
hybrid  between  the  secondary  school  and  the 
university,  that  ought  to  hand  over  a  part  of 
its  work  to  the  secondary  school  and  the  rest 
to  the  university,  and  to  retire  promptly  from 
the  scene  with  such  grace  as  it  can  muster? 
or,  at  best,  is  its  older  function  now  incapable 
of  realization? 


I.    THE  FUNCTION  OF  COLLEGE  EDUCATION 

Just  because  these  questions  concern  the 
place  of  college  education  in  a  system  of  edu- 
cation, they  can  be  answered  only  in  the  light 
of  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  entire 
problem  of  education. 

The  problem  of  education  in  its  broadest 
scope  may  perhaps  be  said  to  be  the  problem 
of  preparation  for  meeting  the  needs  of  the 
world's  life  and  work.  Much  of  the  training 
belongs  necessarily  to  the  home  and  to  the 
interactions  of  the  inevitable  relations  of  life. 
Much  of  it,  probably,  can  never  be  brought 


THE    PRIMACY    OP    THE    PERSON  5 

into  any  organized  system.  But  organized 
education  must  do  what  it  can  to  insure, 
first,  that  no  men  shall  lack  that  elementary 
training  and  knowledge  without  which  they 
are  hardly  fitted  at  all  for  ordinary  human 
intercourse,  or  for  intelligent  work  of  any 
kind  in  society,  still  less  for  growing  and 
happy  lives ;  second,  that  there  shall  be  those 
who  can  carry  on  the  various  occupations 
demanded  by  our  complex  civilization,  in  the 
trades,  in  business,  and  in  the  professions ; 
third,  that  there  shall  be  investigators,  scien- 
tific specialists,  extenders  of  human  knowl- 
edge, in  all  spheres.  None  of  these  needs 
are  likely  to  be  denied — not  even  the  last ;  for 
our  age  has  had  so  many  demonstrations  of 
the  practical  value  of  scientific  discoveries 
that  it  is  even  ready  to  grant  the  value  of  the 
extension  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake. 
That,  then,  every  man  should  have  the  edu- 
cation necessary  to  render  him  a  useful  mem- 
ber of  society;  that  the  necessary  occupations 
should  be  provided  for;  that  there  should  be 
a  class  of  scientific  specialists  constantly  push- 


6         PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL    ELEMENTS    IN    EDUCATION 

ing  out  the  boundaries  of  human  knowledge, 
— we  are  all  agreed.  And  to  this  extent,  at 
least,  the  problems,  first  of  the  elementary 
schools ;  second,  of  the  trade,  technical  and 
professional  schools ;  and  third,  of  the  univer- 
sity proper,  are  recognized  and  justified. 

Our  difficulties  begin  when  we  try  to  de- 
fine more  narrowly  just  what  is  to  be  included 
in  our  first  group  of  schools.  Exactly  what 
education  is  indispensable  that  one  may  be- 
come a  useful  member  of  society?  Virtually, 
we  seem  to  have  decided  that  that  indis- 
pensable education  is  covered  in  our  primary 
and  grammar  grades ;  for  the  majority  do  not 
go  further,  and  compulsory  education  does 
not  require  more.  And  yet,  with  practical 
unanimity,  the  United  States  have  decided 
that  the  State  is  justified  in  furnishing,  and, 
indeed,  is  bound  to  furnish,  that  smaller 
number  of  its  children  who  are  willing  and 
able  to  take  further  schooling,  opportunity 
to  continue  for  three  or  four  years  longer  in 
studies  of  so-called  "secondary"  grade.  The 
State  can  justify  this  procedure  only  upon  the 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  7 

ground  that  such  further  study  prepares  still 
better  for  citizenship,  and  that  it  is  of  value 
to  the  State  that  even  a  much  smaller  number 
should  have  this  better  preparation ;  or,  also, 
and  perhaps  more  commonly,  upon  the  prac- 
tical ground  that  the  secondary  education 
furnishes  the  knowledge  and  training  which, 
if  not  indispensable  to  citizenship,  is  indis- 
pensable to  many  of  the  higher  occupations 
and  forms  of  service  to  the  State.  No  sharp 
line,  certainly,  can  be  drawn  between  the 
studies  of  the  grammar  school  and  those  of 
the  high  school.  And  we  all  recognize  and 
justify  the  secondary  school,  and  unhesita- 
tingly include  it,  as  practically  indispensable 
to  the  State,  if  not  to  all  its  citizens,  in  our 
first  group  of  schools,  to  form  the  unified 
public-school  system. 

But  it  needs  to  be  borne  clearly  in  mind, 
that  if  the  true  justification  of  elementary  and 
secondary  education  is  the  preparation  of  use- 
ful members  of  society,  it  cannot  be  regarded 
as  merely  intellectual.  The  moral  side  of 
the  matter  is,  if  there  is  any  difference,  even 


8        PERSONAL  AND    IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

more  important  —  the  learning  of  order,  of 
obedience,  of  integrity  in  one's  work,  of 
steadfastness  in  spite  of  moods,  of  the  demo- 
cratic spirit,  of  a  real  sense  of  justice,  and  of 
the  rightful  demand  of  the  whole  upon  the 
individual.  If  these  are  not  given  in  some 
good  measure,  then,  whatever  the  intellectual 
results,  in  just  so  far,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  State,  public-school  education  is  a 
failure.  And  yet  no  doubt  it  must  be  said, 
that  since  in  America  the  school  children  are 
all  in  homes,  the  American  public-school 
teacher  has,  quite  naturally,  not  regarded 
himself  as  primarily  charged  with  anything 
but  the  intellectual  training  of  the  child. 
Other  training  has  been  largely  incidental — 
taken  up  only  so  far  as  the  order  of  the  school 
demanded,  or  as  it  was  inevitably  involved  in 
the  situation.  Even  so,  the  moral  training 
has  been  by  no  means  unimportant.  But  it 
may  be  doubted  if  there  is  any  change  in 
public -school  education  so  important  today 
as  that  the  teacher  should  plainly  recognize 
that  his  real  responsibility  is  to  train  his 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    TH1    PERSON  9 

charges  to  be  useful  members  of  society, 
with  all  that  that  implies.  Let  the  child  and 
the  parent  and  the  teacher  all  alike  understand 
that  the  State  undertakes  the  free  education 
of  all  its  children  just  because  it  hopes  thus 
to  prepare  them  to  be  valuable  members  of 
a  free  people ;  and  that  whatever  is  necessary 
to  that  end,  provided  it  does  not  violate  indi- 
vidual consciences,  is  within  the  function  of 
the  public  school.  This  means,  of  course, 
that  it  is  the  business  of  the  public  school  to 
teach  living,  as  well  as  studies. 

But  with  this  recognition  of  the  broader 
function  of  the  public  schools,  with  the  nec- 
essary acknowledgement  of  a  real  broaden- 
ing even  on  the  intellectual  side  of  technical 
and  professional  courses,  and  with  the  pres- 
ent common  admission  of  the  danger  of  a 
specialism  not  broadly  based,  is  the  distinct 
function  of  the  college  clearer,  or  has  it 
rather  been  taken  on  by  the  other  members 
of  the  educational  system?  To  a  certain  ex- 
tent, no  doubt,  the  latter  is  true  and  ought 
to  be  true. 


10      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

But  we  might  well  argue  for  college  edu- 
cation, in  line  with  the  more  practical  argu- 
ment already  made  for  secondary  education, 
that  the  highest  success  in  the  great  occupa- 
tions of  the  world's  work,  including  scientific 
specialism,  requires  an  education  preliminary 
to  the  technical  training,  more  extended  not 
only,  but  of  a  broader  type  than  secondary 
education  can  furnish.  This  seems  commonly 
granted  now  by  the  technical  schools  them- 
selves. And  this  position  is  no  doubt  correct. 
But  is  this  the  chief  reason  for  college  edu- 
cation? It  is  not  merely  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  on  the  world's  work  in  this  external 
sense  that  college  education  exists,  nor  does 
this  sufficiently  define  its  function.  The  col- 
lege does  not  look  beyond  to  the  technical 
or  professional  school,  or  to  the  university 
proper  for  its  justification ;  but  rather  is 
itself  the  culmination  of  the  work  that  at 
least  ought  to  be  undertaken  by  the  public 
schools. 

We  might,  therefore,  argue  again  and  more 
truly,  probably,  for  college  education,  in  line 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  II 

with  the  other  argument  for  secondary  edu- 
cation :  that  the  world  needs  preeminently 
the  leadership  of  a  few  of  greater  social 
efficiency  than  any  of  the  other  types  of 
education  by  their  necessary  limitations  are 
able  to  offer.  For  when  all  is  said  that  can 
possibly  be  said  for  elementary,  secondary, 
technical,  professional,  and  specialized  train- 
ing, what  still  do  the  world's  life  and  work 
need  ?  All  these  are  necessary,  but  obviously, 
for  the  highest  life  of  society,  much  more, 
and  much  that  is  greater,  is  demanded. 
Here  are  instruction  and  discipline,  technical 
skill  and  professional  training,  and  heights 
of  specialized  knowledge.  "But  where  shall 
wisdom  be  found,  and  where  is  the  place  of 
understanding?"  The  elementary  school  saith, 
"It  is  not  in  me";  and  the  secondary  school 
saith,  "It  is  not  with  me."  It  cannot  be 
gotten  for  technical  skill,  nor  shall  profes- 
sional success  be  weighed  for  the  price 
thereof;  it  cannot  be  valued  with  the  gain 
of  the  specialist,  with  his  enlarged  knowledge 
or  his  discovery.  "Whence  then  cometh 


12      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

wisdom,  and  where  is  the  place  of  under- 
standing?" 

One  cannot  answer  that  question  by  rais- 
ing small  inquiries  of  immediately  appre- 
ciable gain.  Let  us  ask,  then,  the  largest 
questions  and  note  their  generally  admitted 
answers.  Assuming  that  the  world  and  life 
are  not  wholly  irrational,  what  is  the  best  we 
can  say  concerning  the  meaning  of  the 
earthly  life  ?  What  is  the  goal  of  civilization  ? 
What  is  the  danger  of  the  American  nation  ? 
What  are  the  greatest  needs  of  the  indi- 
vidual man? 

The  wisdom  of  the  centuries  has  not 
been  able  to  suggest  a  better  meaning  for 
the  earthly  life,  than  that  it  is  a  preliminary 
training  in  living  itself.  The  goal  of  civili- 
zation, our  sociologists  tell  us,  is  a  rational, 
ethical  democracy.  Our  political  students 
insist  that  the  foremost  danger  of  the  nation 
is  the  lack  of  the  spirit  of  social  service. 
The  greatest  needs  of  the  individual  man 
are  always  character,  happiness  and  social 
efficiency.  If  these  are  even  approximately 


THE    PRIMACY    OP    THE    PERSON  13 

correct  answers  to  our  questions,  then  the 
deepest  demands  to  be  made  upon  an  edu- 
cational system  are  that,  so  far  as  it  may,  it 
should  give  such  wisdom  in  living  as  should 
insure  character  and  happiness  to  the  indi- 
vidual, and  that  spirit  of  social  service  that 
should  make  men  efficient  factors  in  bring- 
ing on  the  coming  rational  and  ethical 
democracy. 

This  requires  that  somewhere  in  our  edu- 
cational system  we  should  attack  the  problem 
of  living  itself  and  of  social  service  in  the 
broadest  possible  way,  and  in  a  way  that  is 
broader  than  is  possible  to  either  the  ele- 
mentary or  secondary  school,  though  neither 
of  these  may  legitimately  shirk  this  task. 
Just  this,  then,  is  the  function  of  the  college:  to 
teach  in  the  broadest  way  the  fine  art  of  living, 
to  give  the  best  preparation  that  organized  edu- 
cation can  give  for  entering  wisely  and  unselfishly 
into  the  complex  personal  relations  of  life,  and  for 
furthering  unselfishly  and  efficiently  social  prog- 
ress. As  distinguished  from  the  other  forms 
of  education,  it  has  no  primary  reference  to 


14      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

the  earning  of  a  living,  or  to  the  perform- 
ance of  some  specific  task;  it  faces  the 
problem  of  living  in  a  much  broader  and 
more  thoroughgoing  fashion ;  it  does  not 
specifically  aim  or  expect  to  reach  all,  but 
seeks  to  train  a  comparatively  small  self- 
selected  number  who  shall  be  the  social 
leaven  of  the  nation. 

If  the  task  so  set  the  college  seems  too 
large,  let  us  remember  not  only  that  the  ad- 
mitted individual  and  social  goals  require  no 
less,  but  also  that  the  outcome  of  the  maturest 
thinking  upon  man  and  his  relation  to  the 
world,  indicates  that  the  best  anywhere  can 
be  attained  only  through  such  breadth  of  aim. 

For  if  we  seek  light  from  psychology,  we  are 
confronted  at  once  with  its  insistence  upon 
the  complexity  of  life — the  relatedness  of  all — 
and  upon  the  unity  of  man.  But  these  prin- 
ciples deny  point-blank  the  wisdom  of  an 
education  exclusively  intellectual,  and  require 
rather,  that,  for  the  sake  of  the  intellect  itself, 
the  rest  of  life  and  the  rest  of  man  be  not 
ignored.  Positively,  they  call  for  an  educa- 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  IS 

tion  that  shall  be  broadly  inclusive  in  its 
interests,  and  that  shall  appeal  to  the  entire 
man. 

If  we  turn  to  sociology,  we  meet,  if  possible, 
an  even  stronger  emphasis  upon  the  com- 
plexity of  life,  and  a  clear  demand  that,  back 
of  whatever  power  the  individual  may  have, 
there  should  lie  the  great  convictions  of  the 
social  consciousness,  that  imply  the  highest 
moral  training,  and  set  one  face  to  face  with 
the  widest  social  and  political  questions.  No 
narrow  education  can  meet  the  sociological 
test. 

And  if  we  ask  for  the  evidence  of  phi- 
losophy, we  have  to  note  that  its  most  charac- 
teristic positions  today  in  metaphysics  and 
theory  of  knowledge  —  its  teleological  view 
of  essence,  its  insistence  that  the  function  of 
knowledge  is  transitional,  and  that  the  key  to 
reality  is  the  whole  person — all  refute  a  purely 
intellectual  conception  of  education  and  logi- 
cally require  a  broader  view  of  education  than 
has  anywhere  commonly  prevailed. 

And  if  as  a  Christian  people,  professing  to 


1 6      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

find  our  highest  ideals  in  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, we  seek  guidance  from  its  goal — that  all 
men  should  live  as  obedient  sons  of  the 
Heavenly  Father  and  as  brothers  one  of 
another — we  are  face  to  face  again  with  that 
problem  of  the  complex  world  of  personal 
relations,  that  cannot  be  solved  except 
through  the  training  of  the  entire  man. 

In  all  these  lines  of  psychological,  socio- 
logical, philosophical  and  Christian  thinking, 
our  theories  are  right;  our  practice  in  edu- 
cation at  best  lags  far  behind.  Every  line  of 
modern  thinking  is  a  fresh  insistence  upon 
the  concrete  complexity  of  life  and  upon  the 
unity  of  man,  and  demands  an  education 
broad  enough  to  meet  both.  Nothing  justi- 
fies the  common  extraordinary  emphasis  on 
the  intellectual  as  the  one  aim  of  education. 

It  is  not,  then,  by  accident  that  we  speak 
of  the  necessity  of  a  liberal  education.  For 
let  us  notice  that  even  on  the  intellectual 
side,  the  most  valuable  and  vital  qualities 
cannot  be  given  by  rule  or  by  any  narrow 
technique.  The  supreme  demand  is  for  what 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  IJ 

we  call  sanity,  judgment,  common  sense, 
adaptability  —  all  different  names,  perhaps, 
for  the  same  thing,  namely,  ability  to  know 
whether  a  given  case  is  to  be  treated  accord- 
ing to  general  precedent  —  by  appeal  to  a 
general  principle — or  decided  upon  its  indi- 
vidual merits ;  to  know  whether  our  prob- 
lem is  one  of  classification,  or  one  of  more 
thorough  acquaintance  with  the  particular. 
No  rules  or  methods  of  procedure  can  make 
a  reasoner  or  an  investigator;  for  the  vital 
point  is  to  pick  out  of  a  new  situation  the 
exact  element  in  it  which  is  significant  for 
the  purpose  in  hand.  The  case  cannot  have 
been  anticipated;  the  only  help  that  educa- 
tion can  give  is  through  much  practice  in 
discrimination  and  assimilation,  and  through 
the  bestowal  of  a  wide  circle  of  interests, 
aesthetic  and  practical,  even  more  than  intel- 
lectual. Interpretive  power  is  similarly  con- 
ditioned, and  calls  for  the  richest  life  in  the 
interpreter.  Even  the  scientific  spirit,  then, — 
the  most  valuable  gift  of  a  scientific  train- 
ing,—  is  not  merely  intellectual.  Still  less 
B 


l8      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

are  the  historical  spirit  and  the  philosophical 
spirit  intellectually  conferred ;  they  require 
at  every  turn  the  use  of  the  key  of  the 
whole  man. 

And  we  certainly  have  a  right  to  ask  of 
education  that  it  bring  men  to  appreciation 
of  the  great  values  of  life — what  else  does 
culture  mean  ? — to  aesthetic  taste  and  appre- 
ciation, to  moral  judgment  and  character,  to 
the  capacity  for  friendship,  to  religious  ap- 
preciation and  response. 

But  if  we  have  a  right  to  demand  from  an 
educational  system  in  any  measure  these  qual- 
ities—  judgment,  adaptability,  discernment, 
interpretive  power,  the  scientific,  historical 
and  philosophical  spirit,  and  the  culture  ade- 
quate to  enter  into  the  great  spheres  of  value 
— aesthetic,  personal,  moral  and  religious, — it 
is  evident  that  they  can  be  given  only  indi- 
rectly and  through  the  most  liberal  training. 
Do  they  not  lie,  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
quite  beyond  the  limits  of  elementary,  sec- 
ondary, professional,  or  specialistic  training, 
and  constitute  the  great  aims  of  college  edu- 


THB    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  19 

cation?  Is  there  anything  else  likely  to  take 
the  place  of  the  college  in  performing  this 
greatest  educational  work? 

It  will  hardly  be  contended  by  any,  I 
judge,  that  technical  or  professional  training, 
for  the  very  reason  that  it  does  and  must  aim 
primarily  at  direct  preparation  for  a  particular 
calling,  can  give  with  any  adequacy  this 
indirect  and  liberal  education. 

And  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  any  one 
who  has  measured  with  seriousness  the  great- 
ness of  the  need  of  which  we  have  just 
spoken,  and  the  breadth  of  the  education 
required  to  meet  the  need,  will  be  able  to 
think  that  the  secondary  school,  even  if  ex- 
tended two  years,  is,  or  can  be  made,  suffi- 
cient to  the  task.  For,  in  the  first  place,  it 
is  only  reasonable  that  our  educational  system 
should  somewhere  recognize  the  special  sig- 
nificance of  the  transitional  character  of  the 
period  of  later  youth,  and  definitely  provide 
for  it.  That  period  peculiarly  needs  the 
kind  of  separate  training  given  by  the  col- 
lege, with  its  increased  call  for  independent 


2O      PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

action,  and  (as  compared  with  the  high 
school)  its  greater  possibility  of  bringing  all 
sides  of  the  life  of  the  student  under  some 
common  and  unified  training.  Is  it  too 
much  to  claim  that  the  college,  at  its  best, 
has  proved  an  almost  ideal  transition  from 
the  stricter  supervision  of  the  secondary 
school  to  the  complete  individual  liberty  of 
the  university  proper? 

Moreover,  it  is  quite  wide  of  the  mark  to 
argue,  as  against  the  need  of  the  college,  that 
the  high-school  graduate  of  today  has  often 
done  as  much  work  in  many  lines  as  the 
college  graduate  of  fifty  years  ago.  That 
may  be  true,  but  the  real  question  is  this:  Is 
he  proportionally  as  well  prepared  to  meet 
the  complex  demands  of  modern  life,  as  the 
college  graduate  of  the  older  time,  the  con- 
ditions of  the  much  simpler  life  he  con- 
fronted? The  question,  in  other  words,  is 
not  one  of  absolute  attainment,  but  of  pro- 
portional preparation  for  life ;  nor  one  of 
amount  of  knowledge  merely,  but  of  adaptive 
power.  In  education,  we  are  least  of  all  at 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  21 

liberty  to   ignore  the   increasing   complexity 
of  modern  civilization. 

But  the  decisive  reason,  after  all,  why  the 
secondary  school  cannot  take  the  place  of  the 
college  is  this :  that  one  has  only  to  review 
the  list  of  qualities  required  for  the  com- 
pletest  training  for  living,  to  see  that  the 
deepest  of  the  interests  involved  simply  can- 
not be  appreciated  at  the  secondary  school 
age,  even  if  extended  two  years.  I  have  no 
desire  to  underrate  the  attainments  of  the 
secondary  school  graduate,  but  I  cannot  for- 
get that  the  true  scientific  spirit,  the  historical 
spirit,  the  philosophical  spirit,  power  of  wise 
adaptation,  and  appreciation  of  the  greatest 
spheres  of  value,  are  all  plants  of  slow  growth, 
and  necessarily  pre-suppose  a  certain  maturity 
of  mind.  What  does  the  whole  principle  of 
psychological  adaptation  in  education  mean 
but  just  this,  that  you  cannot  wisely  over- 
hasten  life's  own  contribution?  It  seems  to 
me  too  often  forgotten,  that  the  two  later 
years,  which  it  is  sometimes  proposed  to  cut 
off  from  the  college  course,  are  precisely  the 


22      PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

years  which,  from  the  broader  and  deeper 
point  of  view,  can  least  of  all  be  spared. 
Generally  speaking,  you  simply  cannot  make 
a  philosopher  of  a  sophomore.  He  has  not 
lived  enough.  In  like  manner,  the  key  to 
the  greatest  values  of  life  is  simply  not  yet 
held  before  the  dawning,  at  least,  of  some 
real  maturity. 

Nor  do  statistics  as  to  age  seem  to  me 
greatly  to  affect  the  problem.  With  an  ad- 
vancing civilization,  the  period  of  youth  for 
women  certainly  has  been  generally  extended 
with  real  gain ;  probably  it  is  wisely  ex- 
tended for  both  men  and  women.  In  any 
case,  I  see  no  reason  for  believing  that  the 
average  sophomore  is  relatively  maturer  to- 
day than  his  compeer  of  the  earlier  time. 

These  considerations  seem  to  me  sufficient 
to  show  that  we  have  no  good  reason  to  ex- 
pect the  secondary  school  to  take  the  place 
of  the  college. 

And  we  have  still  less  reason  to  expect 
the  university  to  take  the  place  of  the  col- 
lege, unless  college  and  university  are  re- 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  23 

Carded  as  essentially  interchangeable  terms. 
If  the  university  proper  has  any  really  dis- 
tinctive function,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  see, 
that  must  be  regarded  as  the  training  of  the 
scientific  specialist.  I  am  quite  ready  to  ad- 
mit, and  to  assert,  that  even  the  university 
cannot  wisely  ignore  the  claims  of  citizen- 
ship ;  but  just  because  its  primary  aim  is 
specific  and  limited,  its  recognition  of  these 
claims  must  be  almost  wholly  incidental  —  in 
spirit  and  atmosphere  rather  than  in  its 
proper  training. 

The  university,  then,  properly  so-called, 
cannot  do  the  work  of  the  college ;  first,  be- 
cause its  aim  is  distinctly  and  entirely  intel- 
lectual; and,  second,  because  it  assumes,  with 
some  reason,  that  it  is  dealing  with  fully 
mature  men,  in  whose  case  any  imposition 
of  conduct  and  ideals  would  be  out  of  place, 
and  this  assumption  accentuates  still  further 
its  strictly  intellectual  aim.  But  besides  this, 
in  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  in  its  exclu- 
sive specialism,  the  university  lacks,  necessa- 
rily, the  breadth  of  aim  required  in  the  full- 


24 

est  training  for  living,  and  quite  fails  to  make 
its  appeal  to  the  entire  man;  and  so  shuts 
out  both  indispensable  interests  and  indispen- 
sable training.  Even  on  the  purely  intellec- 
tual side,  for  the  very  reason  that  it  looks  to 
specialism  in  each  line,  it  is  likely  quite  to 
lack  those  general  courses  that  even  the  spe- 
cialist needs  in  other  lines  than  his  own. 
These  three  essential  differences,  then, —  the 
purely  intellectual  aim,  the  assumption  of  the 
maturity  of  its  students,  and  its  exclusive 
specialism, — make  the  atmosphere  of  the 
university  distinctly  different  from  that  of  the 
college,  and  make  it  impossible  that  it  should 
ever  do  the  work  of  the  older  college. 

In  fact,  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that 
the  greatest  losses  that  college  education  has 
suffered  are  due  to  the  fact  that  the  attempt 
has  been  mistakenly  made  to  carry  over  the 
spirit  of  the  university  into  the  college.  As 
American  educators  awakened  only  slowly  to 
the  true  conception  of  the  university  proper, 
and  then,  with  the  natural  enthusiasm  of  a 
new-found  ideal,  exaggerated  the  value  of 


THB    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  25 

the  university's  function,  the  college  and  uni- 
versity ideals  were  naturally  confused,  and  the 
true  college  ideal  almost  lost  in  the  process. 
Many  circumstances  have  favored  this  ten- 
dency. The  confusion  was  real  and  honest. 
Colleges  were  growing  into  universities. 
Many  changes  in  college  education  itself 
were  necessary.  But  the  greatest  damage 
was  done,  simply  because  the  colleges  were 
cowardly  in  the  face  of  unwise  and  ill- 
founded  criticism  made  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  university,  and  were  either  ashamed 
to  resist  the  exclusively  intellectual  trend,  or 
lazily  unwilling  to  keep  the  increasingly  dif- 
ficult responsibility  of  the  broader  college 
training. 

As  a  natural  consequence,  many  of  our 
colleges  and  universities  have  presented  the 
anomalous  condition  of  being  filled  with  stu- 
dents who  claimed  both  the  liberty  of  men 
and  the  irresponsibility  of  boys.  Naturally, 
too,  aside  from  sham  universities,  those  col- 
leges have  been  in  most  danger  in  this  re- 
spect of  losing  true  college  ideals,  that  have 


26      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

been  in  closest  connection  with  the  univer- 
sity, especially  where  the  same  courses  and 
instructors  and  methods  and  discipline  and 
aims  have  served  both  college  and  uni- 
versity. Courses  admirably  adapted  for  the 
exclusive  specialist  may  be  quite  unprofitable 
as  the  chief  pabulum  of  a  college  course ; 
and  a  method  of  treatment,  not  only  justified, 
but  almost  demanded  in  dealing  with  really 
mature  men,  may  be  quite  inadequate  and 
unwarranted  for  the  student  whose  ideals 
are  in  flux,  and  the  appeal  of  whose  entire 
personality  no  instructor  has  a  right  to  ig- 
nore. "Is  not  the  life  more  than  meat?  and 
the  body  than  raiment?"  The  college  needs 
much  more  than  a  highly  trained  specialist 
in  the  teacher's  chair;  it  can  never  spare, 
without  disastrous  loss,  the  close  personal 
touch  of  mature  men  of  marked  interest  in 
the  wide  range  of  the  life  of  others,  and 
with  character-begetting  power.  And  it  can- 
not spare  a  real  training  that  is  far  more 
than  intellectual.  Indeed,  if  I  understand 
President  Butler  aright,  in  his  tentative  sug- 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  27 

gestion  of  halving  the  college  course,  it  is 
exactly  the  state  of  the  universitized  college 
that  has  made  him  regard  the  halving  of  its 
course  as  no  great  disaster.  The  suggestion 
would  seem  warranted,  however,  only  if  we 
must  regard  the  cause  of  the  college  as 
already  lost,  and  count  it  hopeless  that 
either  educators  or  the  public  should  be 
again  awakened  to  the  priceless  value  of  the 
work  of  the  true  college. 

Nor  do  I  believe  that,  with  whatever 
losses,  the  college  has  quite  failed  to  give 
the  liberal  training  required.  Many  a  col- 
lege teacher  can  confirm  from  his  own  re- 
peated observation  President  Wilson's  words: 
"Raw  lads  are  made  men  of  by  the  mere 
sweep  of  their  lives  through  the  various 
schools  of  experience.  It  is  this  very  sweep 
of  life  that  we  wish  to  bring  to  the  con- 
sciousness of  young  men  by  the  shorter  pro- 
cesses of  the  college.  We  have  seen  the 
adaptation  take  place ;  we  have  seen  crude 
boys  made  fit  in  four  years  to  become  men 
of  the  world." 


Mistakes,  no  doubt,  have  been  made, 
serious  losses  sustained,  and  there  are  grave 
dangers  to  be  guarded  against  in  all  our 
colleges.  The  utilities  have  been  over-insist- 
ent; the  aim  has  been  too  merely  intellec- 
tual ;  specialism  has  claimed  too  much ;  the 
standpoint  and  method  of  the  university 
have  prevailed  to  an  extent  quite  beyond 
reasonable  defense;  and,  in  consequence,  at 
multiplied  places  the  rights  of  the  entire 
personality  have  been  ignored. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  no  mere  reaction 
to  the  older  college  is  either  desirable  or 
possible.  Men  came  to  see  that  they  were 
in  a  new  world  that  required  for  wise  and 
fruitful  living  a  broader  curriculum  than  the 
older  college  ever  afforded.  A  change  here 
was  inevitable. 

So,  too,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that 
there  was  needed  greater  emphasis  on  a 
close  and  living  and  practical  relation  to  the 
actual  world ;  fuller  recognition  of  the 
meaning  of  hard,  honest,  intellectual  work, 
and  of  the  sound  psychological  basis  of  the 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  2Q 

laboratory  and  seminar  methods;  a  better 
adaptation  to  differing  individuals;  and,  for 
the  very  sake  of  greater  power  in  the  more 
general  courses,  a  real  approach  to  some- 
thing like  specialism  in  at  least  one  line  of 
study.  In  all  these  important  respects,  the 
changes  toward  the  newer  college  have 
been  not  only  practically  justified  but 
thoroughly  right. 

Now,  is  it  possible  to  combine  the  gains 
of  the  new  with  the  indisputable  advantages 
of  the  old  ?  What  changes  in  the  present 
situation  are  demanded,  if  the  true  function 
of  the  college  is  to  be  completely  fulfilled  ? 
The  present  lack  seems  to  me  plainly  to  lie 
in  the  comparative  neglect  of  the  entire 
personality.  How  are  these  needs  of  the 
complete  personality  to  be  met  in  education  ? 
What  are  the  means  and  what  is  the  spirit 
required  ? 

The  direct  study  of  human  nature  in  its 
constitution  and  in  the  relations  of  society 
ought  to  enable  one  to  answer  these  ques- 
tions with  some  precision.  In  other  words, 


3O      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

if  college  education  has  really  the  broad 
function  that  has  been  ascribed  to  it,  it 
ought  to  be  able  to  meet  a  psychological 
and  sociological  test.  Modern  psychology — 
with  what  seems  to  me  its  preeminent  four- 
fold insistence,  upon  the  complexity  of  life, 
the  unity  of  man,  the  central  importance  of 
will. and  action,  and  the  concreteness  of  the 
real,  involving  a  personal  and  a  social  em- 
phasis— has  its  clear  suggestions.  And  mod- 
ern sociology,  too,  with  its  demand  for  a 
social  consciousness  that  shall  be  character- 
ized by  the  threefold  conviction  of  the 
essential  likeness  of  men,  of  the  mutual  in- 
fluence of  men,  and  of  the  value  and  sacred- 
ness  of  the  person,  has  its  definite  counsel. 
The  proper  fulfilment  of  the  function  of 
the  college,  this  seems  to  indicate,  requires 
as  its  great  means,  first,  a  life  sufficiently 
complex  to  give  acquaintance  with  the  great 
fundamental  facts  of  the  world,  and  to  call 
out  the  entire  man ;  second,  the  completest 
possible  expressive  activity  on  the  part  of 
the  student;  and,  third,  personal  association 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  31 

with  broad  and  wise  and  noble  lives.  And 
the  corresponding  spirit  demanded  in  college 
education  must  be,  first,  broad  and  catholic 
in  both  senses, — as  responding  to  a  wide 
range  of  interests,  and  looking  to  the  all- 
round  development  of  the  individual ;  sec- 
ond, objective  rather  than  self-centered  and 
introspective ;  and,  third,  imbued  with  the 
fundamental  convictions  of  the  social  con- 
sciousness. These  are  always  the  greatest  and 
the  alone  indispensable  means  and  conditions 
in  a  complete  education,  and  they  contain 
in  themselves  the  great  sources  of  character, 
of  happiness,  and  of  social  efficiency.  The 
supreme  opportunity,  in  other  words,  that  a  col- 
lege education  should  offer,  is  opportunity  to  use 
one's  full  powers  in  a  wisely  chosen  complex 
environment,  in  association  with  the  best; — and 
all  this  in  an  atmosphere,  catholic  in  its  interests, 
objective  in  spirit  and  method,  and  democratic, 
unselfish  and  finely  reverent  in  its  personal 
relations.  Such  an  ideal  definitely  combines 
the  best  of  both  the  oHer  and  the  newer 
college.  And  the  colleges  that  most  com- 


32      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

pletely  fulfil  this  ideal  have,  I  judge,  a  work 
which  is  beyond  price,  and  without  possible 
substitute. 

Before  passing  to  the  discussion  of  the 
means  and  spirit  demanded  in  a  true  college 
education,  a  word  further  concerning  the 
relation  of  the  college  to  the  professional 
training  seems  desirable.  In  this  whole 
problem  of  the  possible  shortening  of  the 
college  course  for  the  sake  of  students  look- 
ing to  professional  studies,  several  things 
need  to  be  kept  closely  in  mind  if  confusion 
is  to  be  avoided. 

In  the  first  place,  if  the  professional 
course  is  a  full  rigorous  four-year  course, 
this  ought  to  mean,  and  usually  does  mean, 
that  it  has  been  laid  out  on  somewhat  broad 
and  liberal  lines,  and  not  with  reference  to 
mere  narrow  technique.  And  the  student 
who  is  to  continue  his  study  through  such 
a  course  can  more  easily  afford  to  abridge 
the  time  given  to  the  two  courses. 

This  same  broadening  of  the  professional 
course,  moreover,  makes  possible  an  entirely 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  33 

legitimate  adjustment  to  the  coming  profes- 
sional study  on  the  part  of  the  college.  In 
every  broadly  planned  professional  course  of 
four  years,  there  is  quite  certain  to  be  at 
least  a  year  of  work  of  so  liberal  a  charac- 
ter that  it  may  be  justly  counted  toward 
both  the  college  and  the  professional  degree. 
And  the  colleges  which  can  offer  such  work 
of  first  quality  for  the  different  professions 
can  meet  squarely  and  strongly  every  legiti- 
mate demand  for  abridging  the  entire  period 
of  study  and  can  then,  in  all  probability,  in 
the  great  majority  of  cases,  render  a  better 
service  to  the  student  himself,  to  the  profes- 
sional school,  and  to  society,  by  retaining 
the  student  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  college 
through  his  full  four  years. 

It  is  further  to  be  noted  that,  in  any  case, 
this  reason  for  shortening  college  courses 
holds  only  for  such  professional  students. 
For  the  majority  of  college  students,  includ- 
ing almost  all  the  women,  such  shortening  is 
not  called  for,  and  would  be  only  a  calamity. 
Even  the  smallest  real  colleges,  therefore, 


34      PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

that  can  do  very  little  in  the  way  of  adjust- 
ment to  professional  courses,  and  that  may 
have  to  lose  many,  perhaps  most,  of  those 
looking  to  professional  work,  would  still  have 
their  former  most  important  service  to  render 
for  the  majority  of  their  students. 

Moreover,  it  seems  to  me  wholly  probable 
that  a  good  proportion  of  the  very  ablest  and 
clearest-sighted  of  those  going  into  the  pro- 
fessions will  still  choose  not  to  deprive  them- 
selves of  the  very  best  the  college  can  give 
them,  and  will  therefore  prefer  not  to  spe- 
cialize in  college  in  precisely  those  subjects  to 
which  the  larger  part  of  all  their  later  study, 
in  any  case,  must  be  devoted.  And,  through 
specialization  in  other  lines,  such  exceptional 
students  will  look  forward  confidently  to  a 
larger  life  and  a  higher  professional  success 
than  could  otherwise  come  to  them.  These 
wisest  students  will  certainly  not  wish  to  sac- 
rifice acquaintance  with  the  natural  great 
broad  human  subjects  of  the  last  year  in  col- 
lege to  professional  specialization.  And  even 
those  students  who  feel  compelled  to  abridge 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  35 

their  entire  period  of  study,  if  they  are  wise, 
will  so  scatter  their  preliminary  professional 
study  through  their  college  course,  as  to  in- 
sure that  at  least  a  part  of  their  maturest  time 
in  college  may  be  given  to  those  great  sub- 
jects, like  philosophy,  that  require  some  real 
maturity  of  mind  to  be  most  profitably  taken. 
I  do  not  believe  that  the  proper  demands  of 
both  liberal  and  professional  training  can  be 
met  where  it  is  attempted  to  cover  both 
courses  in  six  years.  Even  where  the  requi- 
site subjects  are  all  covered  by  brilliant  stu- 
dents the  value  of  the  outcome  may  well  be 
doubted.  The  work  is  likely  to  be  done 
under  such  a  sense  of  hurry  and  pressure  as 
quite  to  preclude  results  of  the  highest  kind. 
Haste  is  nowhere  more  certainly  waste  than 
in  education.  For  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten 
that  it  is  time,  and  some  real  sense  of  leisure 
and  opportunity  to  take  in  the  full  signi- 
ficance of  one's  studies  and  to  knit  them 
up  with  the  rest  of  one's  thinking  and  liv- 
ing— it  is  just  these  things  that  distinguish 
real  education  from  cramming. 


36      PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 
II.     THE   GREAT    MEANS    IN   COLLEGE   EDUCATION 

I.  A  Complex  Life. — And,  first,  the  college 
must  furnish  a  life  sufficiently  complex  to 
insure  to  the  student  a  wide  circle  of  in- 
terests, and  to  call  out  his  entire  personality. 

Aside  from  its  psychological  basis,  justifi- 
cation for  this  prime  emphasis  on  breadth  in 
college  education  is  everywhere  at  hand.  For 
philosophy  has  practically  to  recognize,  even 
when  it  does  not  theoretically  and  directly 
assert,  that  "to  be  is  to  be  in  relations." 
Science  cannot  forget  that,  as  the  scale  of  life 
rises,  there  must  be  correspondence  to  a  more 
complex  environment.  The  philosophical 
historian  finds  the  main  safeguard  against  the 
retrogression  of  the  race  in  an  increasing  self- 
control,  due  to  the  steady  pressure  of  great 
and  many-sided  objective  forces  organized 
in  institutions,  laws,  customs  and  education. 
The  supreme  educational  counsel  and  the 
secret  of  full  mental  wakefulness  both  seem 
often  to  be  found  in  concentration  upon  re- 
lations. Our  follies  usually  go  back  to  the 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  37 

ignoring  of  some  relation  or  other  of  the 
matter  in  hand.  And  it  is  not  difficult  to 
show  that  our  world,  our  experience,  our 
sanity,  our  freedom  and  our  influence, — all 
depend  in  no  small  degree  on  the  largeness 
of  our  circle  of  interests ;  while  simple  un- 
derstanding of  our  complex  modern  civi- 
lization alone  requires  great  breadth  in 
training. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  such  breadth  of 
education  is  attended  by  serious  dangers  of 
over -sophistication  and  pessimism  through 
loss  of  convictions  and  ideals.  And  yet  the 
breadth  is  to  be  welcomed ;  for  the  remedy 
is  not  in  less  breadth,  but  in  more  breadth. 
For  breadth  certainly  does  not  mean  the  nar- 
rowness of  ignoring  the  results  of  experience. 
It  is  a  false  liberality  that  treats  with  equal 
respect  exploded  and  verified  hypotheses. 
The  entire  lack  of  prejudice  upon  which 
some  so  pride  themselves  is  curiously  akin 
to  stupid  and  obstinate  folly.  Some  things 
have  been  proved  in  the  history  of  the  race. 

Nor  does  breadth  mean  the  abandonment 


38      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

of  all  discrimination  in  values  —  putting  all 
values  on  a  dead  level.  It  is  a  strange  re- 
versal of  scientific  estimates,  that  turns  unsci- 
entific lack  of  discrimination  into  science's 
broad  openness  to  light.  There  are  many 
points  of  view,  but  they  are  not  therefore  all 
of  equal  importance.  The  noble  virtue  of 
tolerance  is  not  possible  to  such  cheap  and 
easy  indifferentism.  Only  the  man  of  con- 
victions and  ideals,  with  a  strong  sense  of  the 
difference  of  values,  can  be  tolerant,  for  only 
he  cares.  The  view  of  any  single  individual 
is  no  doubt  limited ;  but  the  point  of  view 
which  results  from  the  gradual  and  careful 
cancellation  of  the  limitations  of  many  minds, 
is  more  than  an  individual  view. 

Nor,  once  more,  does  breadth  mean  a  nar- 
row intellectualism,  for,  if  we  can  trust  the 
indications  of  our  intellect,  we  ought  to  be 
able  to  trust  the  indications  of  the  rest  of  our 
nature ;  and,  in  any  case,  the  only  possible  key 
and  standard  of  truth  and  reality  are  in  our- 
selves— the  whole  self — and  the  so-called  "ne- 
cessities of  thought"  become,  thus,  necessities 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  39 

of    a    reason   which    means    loyally    to    take 
account  of  all  the  data  of  the  entire  man. 

Obviously,  then,  no  attempt  at  mere  re- 
action to  simpler  conditions  will  avail  in  ed- 
ucation. Indeed,  we  cannot  return  to  them 
if  we  would ;  though  the  temptation  to  do 
so  is  often  real  enough.  But,  even  if  the 
return  were  possible,  it  would  mean  nothing 
less  than  a  declaration  that  our  Christian 
ideals  cannot  conquer  a  complex  situation. 
This  would  be  really  to  give  up  the  whole 
battle ;  for  we  have  not  only  found  reason 
fully  to  justify  the  greatest  breadth  on  gen- 
eral grounds,  but  the  ideal  interests  them- 
selves suffer  from  any  spirit  of  exclusiveness. 
Human  nature  certainly  avenges  itself  for 
any  attempted  disregard  of  the  wide  range 
of  its  interests ;  and,  in  truth,  the  denial  of 
legitimate  worldly  interests  only  limits  the 
possible  sphere  of  morality  and  religion.  It 
is  for  just  this  reason  that  the  separation  of  the 
sacred  and  the  secular  is  the  heresy  of  here- 
sies. The  simplicity  to  be  sought  lies — not 
in  environment — but  in  a  spirit  that,  having 


4O      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

great  convictions  and  great  ideals,  clearly 
discriminates  the  greater  from  the  less,  and 
unhesitatingly  subordinates  all  relative  goods. 
This  insures  that  singleness  of  aim  that  makes 
the  genuinely  simple  and  transparent  life. 
It  is  a  spirit  that  can  recognize  the  full  value 
of  the  material  in  its  place,  but,  with  the 
clear  vision  that  "a  man's  life  consisteth  not 
in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which  he 
possesseth,"  will  not  allow  itself  to  be  ab- 
sorbed in  the  "passion  for  material  comfort." 
The  simplicity  of  high  ideals,  consistently  and 
resolutely  pursued,  is  possible  to  any  college 
in  the  very  midst  of  the  most  varied  interests. 
And  only  such  a  simplicity  can  conquer  in 
the  end. 

The  college,  of  course,  must  meet  these 
demands  for  breadth  of  training  by  the  wide 
range  of  its  studies  and  of  its  interests.  In 
its  studies  it  aims  to  let  the  student  share  in 
the  world's  best  inheritance  in  each  of  the 
great  realms  of  human  thinking.  I  need  not  re- 
peat the  often-given  argument  for  the  differ- 
ent studies  to  be  recognized  in  a  liberal  train- 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  41 

ing.  It  will  include  the  older  and  the  newer 
studies,  mathematics,  ancient  and  modern 
languages  and  literatures,  natural  science, 
history,  economics  and  sociology,  philosophy 
and  physical  training.  And  it  seems  to  me 
hardly  open  to  question  that  it  ought  to 
provide  courses  that  shall  prove  valuable 
introductions  to  the  intelligent  appreciation 
of  music  and  of  art,  as  well  as  of  literature. 
These  studies  will  represent  all  the  great 
classes  of  facts  in  the  midst  of  which  every 
man  must  live,  and  afford  the  full  range  of 
fundamental  educational  values.  But  liberal 
training  need  not  mean  necessarily,  I  think, 
large  numbers  of  greatly  detailed  courses ; 
nor  for  any  one  man  acquaintance  with  all 
branches  of  natural  science.  The  scientific 
spirit  it  must  give,  with  the  involved  some- 
what thorough  knowledge  of  at  least  one 
science.  The  study  of  material  objects  has 
great  advantages  for  the  scientific  spirit  and 
method ;  but  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  forget 
that  our  primary  relation  in  life  is,  never- 
theless, not  to  things  but  to  persons. 


42      PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

But,  in  any  case,  the  interests  of  the  college 
must  be  wider  than  the  curriculum.  It  is 
only  a  part  of  our  excessive  intellectualism 
that  it  is  so  often  assumed  that  the  curriculum 
makes  the  college.  Some  of  the  most  impor- 
tant interests  in  a  liberal  education  can  be 
best  met  only  indirectly.  Surroundings,  or- 
ganization, discipline  and  atmosphere  may 
here  count  for  more  than  definite  instruction. 
We  have  the  needs  of  the  entire  man — phys- 
ical, intellectual,  aesthetic,  social,  moral  and 
religious — to  meet  in  a  truly  liberal  education. 
The  intellectual  needs  can  doubtless  be  met 
more  easily  and  directly  in  the  curriculum 
than  any  of  the  others;  but  none  of  them 
may  be  ignored  without  serious  loss. 

Physical  education  makes  its  rightful  claim 
upon  the  college.  The  college  must  not  only 
talk  about  the  sound  mind  in  the  sound  body, 
but  do  something  really  to  secure  that  sound 
body  for  its  students.  It  must  not  only  thor- 
oughly recognize  in  its  psychological  teaching 
the  intimate  way  in  which  body  and  mind  are 
knit  up  together,  the  physical  basis  of  habit, 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  43 

the  critical  importance  of  surplus  nervous 
energy,  the  influence  of  physical  training 
upon  the  brain  centers,  and  the  close  connec- 
tion of  the  will  with  muscular  activity;  but, 
if  it  really  believes  these  things,  it  must 
practically  recognize  them  in  the  organization 
of  its  work.  This  means,  not  only,  that  there 
must  be  scrupulous  care  about  sanitary  con- 
ditions, careful  supervision  of  the  health  of 
students  by  thoroughly  trained  physicians,  and 
general  hygienic  instruction,  but  such  scien- 
tifically planned  and  graded  courses  in  physi- 
cal training  as  shall  deserve  to  count  as  real 
education  on  the  same  basis  as  laboratory 
courses.  Unless  our  modern  psychology  is 
wholly  wrong,  such  physical  education  that 
can  be  applied  to  all  students  has  a  great 
contribution  to  make,  not  only  in  health  and 
in  the  systematic  development  of  the  body, 
but  intellectually  and  volitionally  as  well. 

If  athletics  are  to  make  their  true  contri- 
bution to  the  college  life — and  a  most  valuable 
contribution  that  may  be — a  wide  range  of 
sports  must  be  encouraged  that  shall  enlist 


44      PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

a  great  portion  of  the  students,  and  not 
merely  a  small  number  of  specially  athletic 
men ;  and  the  spirit  of  genuine  play  must 
be  brought  back  into  all  college  so-called 
sports.  They  have  their  most  valuable  office, 
it  should  never  be  forgotten,  not  as  serious 
business  or  money-making  enterprises,  but 
simply  as  play.  A  relative  good  becomes  a 
serious  evil  when  it  is  allowed  to  overtop 
greater  values ;  but  in  its  place  it  contributes 
to  the  sanity  and  health  of  all  other  interests. 
Such  a  contribution,  I  have  no  doubt,  ath- 
letics have  it  in  their  power  to  make,  and  to  a 
considerable  extent  do  make  even  now;  and 
physical  education,  as  a  whole,  demands 
greater  attention  from  the  college. 

The  universally  recognized  demand  of  the 
intellectual  in  college  education  needs  no 
argument. 

The  fact  that  man  is  as  truly  an  esthetic 
being  as  physical  and  intellectual,  the  col- 
lege has  less  often  sufficiently  recognized. 
But  if  it  is  the  mission  of  a  liberal  training 
to  produce  the  man  of  culture,  it  can  hardly 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  45 

refuse  to  furnish,  in  some  form,  ability  to 
appreciate  the  great  aesthetic  realms  of  litera- 
ture, music  and  art.  What  it  already  does 
in  large  measure  for  literature,  it  ought  also 
to  do  for  music  and  art.  We  must  not  forget 
the  kinship  of  the  aesthetic  with  the  still 
higher  values,  and  its  own  large  contribution 
to  the  sanity  and  happiness  of  life.  The  col- 
lege cannot  wisely  ignore  this  need  of  man. 
Doubtless,  the  real  need  cannot  be  fully  nor 
perhaps  chiefly  met  in  courses  or  in  their 
equipment.  The  college  needs  to  be  able 
to  put  its  students  to  such  extent  as  is  pos- 
sible in  the  presence  of  the  best  in  these 
realms,  and  to  permeate  the  common  life  of 
each  student  with  something  of  the  beautiful. 
It  is  no  small  service  which  is  so  rendered. 
Music  has  certain  great  advantages  in  this 
respect,  especially  in  a  coeducational  insti- 
tution. 

And  certainly,  unless  one  denies  the  legiti- 
macy of  the  very  aim — social  efficiency — with 
which  either  the  State  or  the  Church  enters 
upon  the  work  of  education  at  all,  the  place 


46      PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

of  the  social  and  moral  in  college  education 
cannot  be  questioned.  Men  may  differ  as  to 
the  best  way  of  meeting  these  needs ;  they 
can  hardly  differ  as  to  their  imperative  claim 
upon  any  education  that  is  to  be  called  lib- 
eral. No  let-alone  policy  here  is  enough. 
The  moral  in  its  broadest  scope  should  be  a 
clearly  recognized  part  of  college  education — 
to  be  most  wisely  and  considerately  done,  no 
doubt,  with  all  possible  recognition  of  the 
moral  initiative  of  the  pupil — but  to  be  done, 
nevertheless.  Much  talk  upon  this  point 
seems  to  make  the  most  singular  assumption 
that  the  only  real  necessity  in  that  finest  and 
most  delicate  of  all  worlds,  the  world  of  per- 
sonal relations,  is  moral  backbone ;  and  that 
a  situation  that  tends  to  develop  that  is  doing 
all  that  can  be  asked  for  moral  education. 
But  what  of  aims  and  ideals  and  wisest  means 
in  all  this?  What  of  that  sensitive  moral 
judgment,  and  creative  imagination,  and  deep 
sense  of  the  meaning  of  life,  without  which 
no  high  moral  attainment  can  be  made  ? 
What  right  have  we  indifferently  to  let  things 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  47 

take  their  course  here?  This  is  nothing  less 
than  to  give  the  student  a  shove  downward ; 
for  other  influences  do  not  keep  their  hands 
off  in  the  meantime.  What  else  is  the  object 
of  education  but  to  make  a  man  all  around 
a  better  man  than  he  would  have  otherwise 
naturally  become? 

And,  once  more,  unless  one  is  ready  to 
deny  altogether  the  value  of  the  function  of 
religion  in  the  life  of  men,  the  religious  need 
also  deserves  recognition  in  some  way  in  any 
education  that  is  to  be  called  complete.  Any 
ideal  view  of  life,  such  as  a  broad  education 
must  itself  assume,  virtually  implies  a  faith  in 
the  rationality  of  the  world  which  is  practi- 
cally religious.  It  is  shallow  thinking  that  im- 
agines that  religious  faith  is  a  matter  of  small 
concern,  and  easily  to  be  set  aside.  If,  as 
Emerson  tells  us,  any  high  friendship  transfig- 
ures the  world  for  us,  certainly  there  is  no 
such  contributor  to  peace  and  joy  as  a  real 
faith  in  God.  And  ethical  earnestness  and  so- 
cial efficiency,  no  less  than  happiness,  surely 
find  their  strongest  support  in  a  religious 


48      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

faith.  Why  should  the  man  of  ethical  earnest- 
ness believe  that  he  is  more  in  earnest  to  be 
honest  and  kind  than  the  Source  of  all  whence 
he  has  come?  Is  man  indeed  himself  the  High- 
est? And  what  rational  defense  has  any  man 
for  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  throws  him- 
self, either  into  his  own  calling,  or  into  work 
for  social  progress,  who  cannot  believe  that  in 
both  he  is  working  in  line  with  the  eternal 
forces,  and  that  a  plan  greater  than  his  own 
encircles  all  his  plans  and  makes  effective  all 
the  bits  of  his  striving?  None  of  us  are  going 
seriously  and  enthusiastically  to  attempt  to  dip 
out  the  ocean  with  a  cup.  And  if  we  really 
believe  in  the  value  of  our  calling,  or  of  our 
own  social  endeavor,  whether  we  recognize 
it  or  not,  our  belief  is  at  bottom  a  genuinely 
religious  faith.  Man  is  inevitably  a  religious 
being.  For  this  very  reason,  too,  a  peculiar 
responsibility  is  laid  upon  education.  For  this 
means  that  some  kind  of  religious  life  and 
thought  every  man  is  bound  to  have ;  the  only 
question  is,  whether  that  religious  life  and 
thought  shall  be  well  considered  and  adequate. 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  49 

Either  the  function  of  religion  is  much  less 
than  the  great  majority  of  the  more  thought- 
ful of  mankind  have  always  thought,  or  the 
religious  need  of  men  deserves  to  be  met  in 
education  without  apology  and  with  an  effec- 
tiveness seldom  found.  It  concerns  a  people 
to  know  whether  its  educational  system  is 
helping  to  an  intelligent  and  genuine  relig- 
ious life.  So  great  a  need  as  this  will  not  take 
care  of  itself.  Where  is  it  being  adequately 
met  today?  Few  things  are  more  discourag- 
ing than  the  large  amount  of  surprisingly  un- 
intelligent Christianity  in  supposedly  educated 
men.  How  many  of  our  college  graduates 
have  really  awakened,  for  example,  to  the 
significance  of  the  serious  self-limitation  of 
philosophy  in  its  setting  outside  its  field  the 
great  facts  of  Christian  history? 

It  is  a  chief  aim  of  a  liberal  education — is 
it  not? — to  bring  a  man  to  true  culture — to 
ability  to  enter  into  all  values  with  apprecia- 
tion and  conviction.  And  all  values — all  the 
marvelous  content  of  literature  and  music  and 
art — we  may  not  forget,  are  but  the  revelation 


5O     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

of  the  riches  of  some  personal  life.  All  values 
go  back  ultimately  to  persons.  And  the 
highest  achievement  of  culture  is  the  under- 
standing and  appreciation  of  the  great  per- 
sonalities. And  the  Christian  religion,  there- 
fore, makes  its  rightful  appeal  to  the  truly 
cultivated  man  in  the  transcendent  person  of 
its  Founder.  May  not  the  college  be  asked 
to  send  out  men  sufficiently  cultured  to  be 
able  to  appreciate  that  transcendent  person 
of  history? 

Doubtless,  in  many  of  our  institutions  the 
use  of  anything  like  definite  religious  in- 
struction and  motive  by  the  institution  itself 
is  necessarily  excluded.  Even  so,  it  means  a 
limitation  in  the  education,  which  is  to  be 
made  good  so  far  as  possible  by  other  agen- 
cies. The  necessity  of  these  situations  is, 
however,  by  no  means  to  be  made  into  a 
prescription  for  all  others.  And  the  teacher 
may  well  rejoice  who,  in  the  midst  of  his 
teaching,  is  free  to  give  utterance  to  his 
deepest  and  most  significant  convictions. 

In  general,  those  colleges  will   best   meet 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  51 

the  demands  for  breadth  of  education,  that 
are  most  free  and  best  organized  to  meet 
the  entire  range  of  human  interests.  The 
advantage  here  lies  in  part  with  the  larger 
and  in  part  with  the  smaller  institutions. 

In  all  cases,  with  whatever  inevitable  limi- 
tations of  situation,  it  must  at  least  be  de- 
manded that  the  spirit  pervading  the  college 
should  be  heartily,  though  discriminatingly, 
catholic.  There  should  be,  certainly,  no 
vaunting  of  our  limitations.  And  this  dis- 
criminating breadth  of  view,  it  should  be 
noticed,  in  its  recognition  of  the  complexity 
of  life,  and  of  the  unity  of  man,  if  truly  in- 
terpreted, itself  affords  moral  support;  for  it 
furnishes  a  motive  against  mere  impulse,  and 
helps  directly  to  that  deliberation  which  is 
the  secret  of  self-control;  and,  because  it 
believes  that  all  life  is  so  knit  up  together, 
is  also  strenuous  counsel  against  deteriora- 
tion at  any  point. 

Beyond  this  breadth  in  interest  and  ap- 
peal, the  great  reliance  of  an  education  that 
is  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  entire  man  must 


52      PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   EELMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

be,  as  we  have  seen,  upon  making  all  pos- 
sible use  of  expressive  activity  on  the  part 
of  the  student,  and  of  personal  association. 

2.  Expressive  Activity. — And,  first,  if  the 
"voluntaristic  trend"  in  modern  psychology 
has  any  justification,  if  in  body  and  mind  we 
are  really  made  for  action,  if  for  the  very  sake 
of  thought  and  feeling  we  must  act,  then 
any  soundly  based  education  must  every- 
where make  much  of  the  will  and  of  action, 
must  in  all  departments  of  its  training  of 
the  individual — physical,  intellectual,  aesthetic, 
social,  moral  and  religious  —  specifically  seek 
expressive  activity. 

This  goes  without  saying  in  physical  edu- 
cation, and  it  is  just  at  that  point  that 
physical  education  has  its  greatest  contribution 
to  make  to  all  other  training.  And  the  edu- 
cational value  of  earning  one's  way  in  college 
is  not  to  be  overlooked  just  here.  It  is  easy 
to  overdo  the  amount  of  direct  financial  aid 
to  students.  It  is  not  the  ministry  alone,  as 
seems  often  gratuitously  assumed,  that  suf- 
fers in  this  respect.  In  spite  of  the  tempta- 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  53 

tion  of  a  short-sighted  competition  that  sets 
colleges  to  bidding  against  one  another  for 
students,  it  remains  true  that  no  college  that 
aims  at  the  highest  results  can  afford  to  ig- 
nore social  axioms  in  giving  its  beneficiary 
aid.  Care  by  the  college  in  providing  op- 
portunities for  self-help  is  the  very  best 
form  of  aid.  For  such  aid  does  not  pauper- 
ize, but  calls  out  useful  active  service  from 
the  student  himself.  But  the  possibilities  of 
development  in  this  direction  depend  very 
largely  on  the  fidelity  of  students.  Each  stu- 
dent generation  holds  a  trust  in  this  respect 
for  the  next  generation. 

The  principle  has  already  been  widely 
recognized  in  intellectual  training  in  many 
of  the  changes  of  the  newer  education — in 
the  introduction  of  laboratory  and  seminar 
methods,  and  in  the  extension  of  these 
methods  so  far  as  possible  to  all  subjects  of 
study,  and  specifically  in  the  revolution  of  the 
teaching  of  English  composition.  But  this 
principle  of  the  fundamental  need  of  expres- 
sive activity  deserves  ever -widening  recogni- 


54      PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

tion,  as  a  real  guiding  principle  even  in 
intellectual  teaching.  The  pupil's  own  ac- 
tivity is  to  be  called  out  at  every  point;  the 
fullest,  clearest  and  most  accurate  expression 
of  his  thought  in  speech,  in  writing,  and, 
wherever  possible,  in  action,  is  to  be  sought. 
Even  our  ideas  are  not  ours  until  we  have 
expressed  them,  and  they  are  more  perfectly 
ours,  the  more  perfect  the  expression.  The 
old-fashioned  recitation,  when  well  con- 
ducted, had  a  real  ground  of  justification, 
and  no  lecturing  by  the  teacher  can  fully 
replace  it. 

In  (Esthetic  education  the  same  principle 
holds.  Some  actual  attainment  in  each  of 
the  arts  is  no  doubt  a  real  aid  to  intelligent 
appreciation.  And  no  art  lends  itself  more 
easily  than  music  to  such  attainment,  even 
quite  outside  the  work  of  the  regular  cur- 
riculum. No  doubt  the  main  dependence  in 
this  matter  of  aesthetic  education  must  be 
upon  the  molding  influence  of  the  best  in 
these  realms,  so  far  as  the  college  can  fur- 
nish this.  To  a  considerable  extent  this  is 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  55 

possible  in  all  the  arts,  if  the  necessary 
means  are  granted.  But  if  these  influences 
are  to  do  their  full  work,  it  should  be  noted, 
there  must  be  some  real  response  on  the 
part  of  the  student,  made  possible  directly 
through  courses  intended  to  introduce  to  the 
arts,  and  indirectly  through  the  less  system- 
atic but  not  less  stimulating  suggestion  of  a 
wide -spread  interest  in  the  atmosphere  of 
the  college. 

And  aesthetic  education  has  not  done  its 
full  work  until  it  has  brought  the  student  to 
the  recognition  of  the  demands  of  the  beau- 
tiful in  all  his  work  and  in  all  his  surround- 
ings, and  to  the  cherishing,  as  a  perma- 
nent aim,  of  the  ideal  expression  of  the 
ideal  life. 

But  it  is  in  the  realms  of  the  social, 
moral  and  religious  that  expressive  activity 
is  most  imperatively  demanded.  If  men  are 
to  be  saved  from  mere  passive  sentimentalism, 
they  must  put  their  desires,  aspirations  and 
ideals  into  act.  The  very  employment  of  the 
student  in  bringing  him  continually  face  to 


56      PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

face  with  noble  sentiments,  peculiarly  sub- 
jects him  to  this  danger.  That  which  is  not 
expressed  dies.  A  man  can  be  best  prepared 
for  moral  earnestness,  social  efficiency  and 
a  genuine  religious  response  in  life  only 
through  active  expression  in  each  of  these 
spheres.  Men  are  best  trained  for  society  by 
acting  in  society,  for  the  responsibilities  of  a 
democracy  by  taking  their  part  in  a  really 
democratic  community,  for  the  best  fulfilment 
of  personal  relations  by  honest  answer  to  the 
varied  personal  demands — human  and  divine. 
The  student  life  should  not  be  a  hermit  nor 
cloistered  nor  exclusive  life.  The  more  nat- 
ural and  normal  the  personal  relations,  both 
to  men  and  women,  in  the  midst  of  which 
the  student  lives,  the  better  the  preparation 
for  the  actual  life  that  awaits  him.  And  let 
his  relations  to  the  community  life,  civic 
and  religious,  so  far  as  possible,  be  those  of 
an  ordinary  law-abiding  citizen,  and  let  him 
act  as  such  a  citizen,  so  far  as  such  action 
is  open  to  him. 

Wherever  the  college  calls  for  the  attain- 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  57 

ment  of  definite  ends,  wherever  it  sets  tasks 
to  be  faithfully  done  at  given  times,  wherever 
it  calls  out  the  will  of  the  student  in  the  larger 
liberty  its  life  affords  him,  it  is  doing  some- 
thing for  the  development  of  his  moral  and 
religious  character.  But  its  responsibility  can- 
not end  with  these  means.  The  atmosphere 
of  a  college  should  be  such  as  to  enlist  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  students  in  valuable  causes 
— and  there  are  a  great  variety  of  them — in 
which  they  may  already  have  some  share. 
The  naturally  self-centered  life  of  the  student 
peculiarly  needs  such  enlistment  in  objective 
causes.  In  the  midst  of  a  life  permeated  with 
a  democratic,  unselfish  and  reverent  spirit, 
he  should  find  increasingly  such  a  spirit  called 
out  from  him.  Living  in  personal  relations 
which  may  well  be  among  the  closest  and 
richest  of  his  life,  he  is  to  learn  the  capacity 
for  friendship  in  the  only  way  it  can  be 
learned,  through  some  form  of  actual  useful 
service.  So  far  as  college  traditions  are  in 
conflict  with  such  an  ideal,  they  lag  behind 
any  really  Christian  civilization.  Certainly  the 


58      PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

college  should  itself  afford  the  best  opportu- 
nities for  the  students'  own  initiative  and 
expression  in  both  the  moral  and  religious 
life.  And  as — apart  from  personal  association 
— it  can  best  help  the  moral  life  by  an  at- 
mosphere permeated  with  the  convictions  of 
the  social  consciousness,  so  it  can  best  help 
the  religious  life  by  making  dominant  a  con- 
ception of  religion  that  shall  make  it  real 
and  rational  and  vital  for  the  mind  that  really 
gives  it  attention.  By  such  a  conception,  the 
student's  own  response  is  most  naturally 
called  out. 

3.  Personal  Association. — But  it  is  called 
out  even  so,  not  so  much  by  the  teaching  as 
by  the  spirit  of  the  men  back  of  the  teach- 
ing. And  we  are  thus  brought  to  the  greatest 
of  all  the  means  available  in  an  all-round 
education — personal  association — already  nec- 
essarily anticipated  in  part.  I  make  no  doubt 
that  the  prime  factors  in  a  complete  educa- 
tion are  always  persons,  not  things,  not  even 
books.  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  show 
how  powerful  is  personal  association  in  all 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  59 

the  lines  of  education,  even  in  scientific 
work ;  but  it  is,  of  course,  most  indispensable 
in  moral  and  religious  training. 

The  inevitable  interactions  of  the  members 
of  a  cosmopolitan  student  body  are  them- 
selves of  the  greatest  intrinsic  value.  The 
great  fundamental  social  convictions — of  the 
likeness  of  men,  of  the  mutual  influence  of 
men,  of  the  sacredness  of  the  person — are 
developed  in  a  true  college  life  almost  per- 
force. And  the  more  genuinely  democratic 
the  college,  the  more  certain  is  its  ability  to 
make  socially  efficient  citizens.  For  the  sake 
of  its  own  highest  mission,  it  can  afford  to 
stand  against  the  aristocracy  of  sex,  against 
the  aristocracy  of  color,  against  the  aristoc- 
racy of  wealth,  against  the  aristocracy  of  the 
clique,  against  the  aristocracy  of  mere  intel- 
lectual brilliancy.  And  it  can  safely  carry 
this  democratic  spirit  very  far  into  all  its 
organization  and  working. 

Beyond  these  inevitable  social  interactions 
of  the  college  life,  it  is  a  great  thing  for  the 
development  of  a  man  to  be  surprised  into 


6O      PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL    ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

really  unselfish  friendships.  And  the  college, 
by  its  great  community  of  interests  and  its 
natural  atmosphere  of  trust,  has  peculiar 
power  in  bringing  about  just  such  unselfish 
friendships.  The  contribution  which  it  so 
makes  not  only  to  character  but  also  to 
happiness,  the  college  man  knows  well. 

But  either  in  morals  or  in  religion  we 
know  but  one  royal  road  to  the  highest  life 
— through  personal  association  with  those 
who  possess  such  a  life  as  we  ought  to  have, 
to  whom  we  can  look  in  admiration  and  love, 
and  who  give  themselves  unstintedly  to  us. 
There  is  no  cheaper  way.  Even  so  high  a 
service  is  often  rendered  to  one  student  by 
another  student ;  but  it  is  a  wholly  just  de- 
mand to  make  upon  a  college  that  that  ser- 
vice should  be  rendered  in  preeminent  degree 
by  its  teachers.  Whatever  may  be  true  in 
other  parts  of  the  educational  system,  the 
college  teacher  must  be  one  from  whom  the 
highest  living  can  be  readily  caught.  In  the 
interests  of  simple  honesty,  the  college 
teacher  must  be  thoroughly  prepared  to  teach 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THB    PERSON  6l 

what  he  professes  to  teach.  We  cannot  begin 
in  character -making  with  a  fraud.  And  for 
the  same  reasons,  professing  to  teach  he 
should  be  able  to  teach.  He  must  have  sanity, 
too,  and  tact — real  wisdom,  for  the  insights  of 
only  such  a  man  will  be  sure  to  count  with 
others.  And,  as  a  man  who  must  stand  as  a 
convincing  witness  for  the  best,  he  cannot 
be  excused  from  the  requisites  of  the  effec- 
tive witness  —  undoubted  character  and  con- 
viction, genuine  interest  in  the  deepest  life 
of  others,  and  that  power  in  putting  the 
great  things  home  that  should  belong  to  his 
teaching  ability.  His  highest  qualification  is 
character-begetting  power — power  to  inspire 
other  men  to  their  absolute  best.  When  one 
tries  to  measure  the  power  of  even  one  or 
two  such  men  in  a  college  community,  he 
begins  to  see  at  last  what  the  one  indispen- 
sable factor  in  a  college  is,  and  how  much  is 
at  stake  in  the  choice  of  a  faculty. 

Nothing,  let  us  be  sure,  so  certainly  brings 
about  the  deterioration  of  the  college  as  care- 
lessness in  the  selection  of  its  teachers.  A  few 


62      PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

compromising  appointments  here  may  easily 
make  impossible  the  maintenance  of  the  col- 
lege's highest  ideals  or  best  traditions.  The 
spirit  of  a  college  cannot  go  down  in  its  build- 
ings or  grounds  or  forms  of  organization. 
Even  on  the  intellectual  side  of  the  college, 
the  supreme  factors  are  persons,  never  things 
or  machinery;  how  much  more  when  we  are 
thinking  of  the  whole  man.  If  a  college's 
best  continues  at  all  and  grows,  it  must  con- 
tinue and  grow  in  persons ;  and  the  petty 
and  ignoble  cannot  carry  on  the  work  of  the 
great  and  worthy. 

We  seem  to  be  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
awakening  to  the  overweighting  importance 
of  moral  and  religious  education,  and  the 
movement  comes  none  too  soon ;  but  let  us 
not  for  a  moment  imagine  that  any  change 
in  courses  or  methods  or  organization  can 
ever  take  the  place  of  the  one  great  indis- 
pensable means — the  personal  touch  of  great 
and  high  personalities.  And  if  they  are  not 
found  in  our  colleges,  where  may  they  be 
sought? 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  63 

III.    THE  REQUISITE  SPIRIT  IN  COLLEGE  EDUCATION 

And  when  one  turns  to  characterize  the 
spirit  of  the  true  college  he  must  parallel,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  great  means  of  a  complex 
life,  of  expressive  activity,  and  of  personal 
association,  with  the  demand  for  a  spirit — 
heartily  but  discriminatingly  catholic,  thor- 
oughly objective,  and  marked  by  the  great 
convictions  of  the  social  consciousness.  In 
the  discussion  of  the  means,  the  spirit  needed 
has  been  in  no  small  part  implied.  I  certainly 
need  not  say  more  concerning  the  catholicity 
that  must  unmistakably  mark  the  true  college. 

But  it  does  deserve  to  be  emphasized  that, 
if  psychology's  insistence  upon  the  impor- 
tance of  action  is  at  all  justified,  then  our  nor- 
mal mood,  the  mood  of  the  best  work,  of  the 
best  associations,  and  of  happiness  itself,  is  the 
objective  mood.  The  great  means  in  education, 
of  using  one's  powers  in  an  interesting  and 
complex  environment,  even  for  the  very  sake 
of  the  ideal,  itself  demands  the  mood  of 
work.  And  this  needs  to  be  particularly  re- 


64      PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

membered  in  moral  and  religious  training. 
The  student  life,  in  any  case,  is  quite  too 
prone  to  be  self-centered,  and  therefore  needs 
all  the  more  the  objective  emphasis.  But  aside 
from  this  peculiar  need  of  the  student  life, 
the  introspective  mood  itself  has  a  smaller 
contribution  to  make  to  the  moral  and  reli- 
gious life  than  has  been  commonly  assumed. 
Just  so  much  introspection  is  needed  as  to 
make  sure  that  one  has  put  himself  in  the 
presence  of  the  great  objective  forces  that 
lead  to  character  and  to  God.  When  this  is 
determined,  the  work  of  introspection  is  prac- 
tically done.  The  dominant  mood  should  be 
objective  through  and  through. 

And  one  chief  and  good  cause  of  reaction, 
no  doubt,  from  some  of  the  older  methods  of 
moral  and  religious  training  in  college,  has 
been  the  lack  of  this  objective  spirit.  This 
does  not  mean  any  underestimation  of  the  sig- 
nificance of  personal  religion,  but  a  whole- 
some sense  that  no  man  may  come  into  right 
personal  relations  with  God  without  sharing 
the  life  of  God ;  and  that  life  is  love ;  and  love 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  65 

cannot  be  cultivated  in  selfishness  and  self- 
absorption. 

But  if  the  college  looks  preeminently  to 
social  efficiency,  and  if  its  greatest  means  is 
personal  association,  its  spirit  must  be,  above 
all,  permeated  with  the  great  convictions  of 
the  social  consciousness.  Nowhere  should  the 
atmosphere  be  more  genuinely  and  thor- 
oughly democratic,  charged  with  the  strong 
sense  of  the  likeness  of  men  in  the  great 
essentials ;  nowhere  a  more  evident  setting 
aside  of  all  artificial  and  merely  conventional 
standards  in  the  estimate  of  men.  No  small 
part  of  the  value  of  the  college  education  lies 
in  bringing  a  man  steadily  to  the  test  of  the 
worth  of  his  naked  personality.  And  when 
convention  rules,  the  very  life  of  the  college 
has  gone  out. 

And  the  college  must  add  to  its  demo- 
cratic spirit  the  spirit  of  responsibility  and 
service.  Its  life  must  be  permeated  with  the 
conviction  that  men  are  inevitably  members 
one  of  another,  and  that  responsibility  for 
others,  therefore,  is  inescapable;  that,  more- 
E 


66      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

over,  much  of  the  best  of  life  comes  through 
this  knitting  up  with  humanity  in  many-sided 
personal  relations,  and,  in  consequence,  this 
mutual  influence  of  men  is  not  merely  inevi- 
table, but  desirable  and  indispensable.  Surely, 
a  true  cosmopolitan  college  must  be  able  to 
send  out  men  marked  by  the  sense  of  respon- 
sibility and  of  the  obligation  of  service. 

But  no  high  development  is  possible  in 
personal  friendship  or  in  society  without  a 
deep  sense  of  the  value  and  sacredness  of  the 
person.  What  even  the  golden  rule  really 
demands  of  a  man,  depends  upon  his  sense  of 
the  significance  of  life,  of  the  value  of  his  own 
personality.  And  if  even  the  sense  of  the  like- 
ness and  of  the  mutual  influence  of  men  is  to 
bear  satisfying  fruit,  it  must  be  informed 
throughout  by  reverent  regard  for  the  liberty 
and  the  person  of  others. 

And  nowhere  is  this  reverence  for  the  per- 
son more  needed  than  in  moral  and  religious 
education.  For  the  very  aim  of  such  educa- 
tion is  to  bring  a  man  to  a  faith  and  a  life  of 
his  own.  This  requires  at  every  point  the  most 


THE     PRIMACY    OF    THE     PERSON  67 

careful  guarding  of  the  other's  liberty,  the 
calling  out  everywhere  of  his  own  initiative. 
There  can  be,  therefore,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  no  mere  imposition  upon  another  of  any 
genuine  moral  and  religious  life.  And  more 
than  this  is  true.  What  you  will  do,  what  you 
can  do  for  another,  will  be  measured  by  your 
sense  of  his  value.  If  men  are  for  you  mere 
creatures  of  a  day  with  but  meager  possibili- 
ties, nothing  can  call  out  from  you  the  largest 
service  in  their  behalf.  Nor  is  this  all.  With 
the  sense  of  the  value,  the  preciousness  of  the 
person,  comes  a  genuine  reverence,  that  not 
only  sacredly  guards  the  other's  moral  initia- 
tive, but  understands  that  the  inner  life  of 
another  is  rightly  inviolate ;  that  in  any  high 
friendship,  nay,  in  any  true  personal  relation, 
there  can  be  only  request,  never  demand. 
The  highest  man  stands  with  Christ  at  the 
door  of  the  heart  of  the  other,  only  knocking 
that  he  may  come  in  by  the  other's  full 
consent  alone. 

And,  if  the  college  is   to   grapple  in  any 
effective  way  with  moral  and  religious  educa- 


68      PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

tion,  it  must,  beyond  all  else,  have  a  spirit 
instinct  with  such  reverence  for  the  person. 
On  this  very  account,  indirect  methods  here 
may  be  really  more  effective  than  direct 
methods.  Some  wise  instruction  undoubt- 
edly is  desirable,  and  even  imperative,  but 
it  must  be  given  by  men  who  have  a  delicate 
sense  of  what  personality  means ;  and  the 
spirit  that  pervades  the  college  is  here  more 
effective  even  than  the  instruction;  and  it 
would  not  be  difficult  to  overdo  definite 
instruction  in  this  field.  Character  and 
religion  are  always  rather  caught  than  taught. 
I  cannot  doubt,  then,  that  a  second  impor- 
tant reason  for  reaction  from  the  older  college 
in  its  moral  and  religious  education  has  been 
because  it  too  often  forgot  the  supreme  need 
of  reverence  for  the  person  of  the  pupil. 
The  disrepute  into  which  the  so-called  "pa- 
ternal" methods  have  fallen  implies  as  much. 
But  is  it  not  worth  our  while  to  remember 
that  the  name — paternal — is  falsely  given  in 
such  a  case?  The  highest  characteristic  of 
the  true  father  is  a  deep  sense  of  the  value 


THE    PRIMACY    OF    THE    PERSON  69 

and  sacredness  of  the  person  of  his  child, 
not  the  desire  to  dominate.  And  no  moral 
and  religious  education  worthy  of  the  name 
is  possible  in  a  college  where  such  reverence 
for  the  person  does  not  prevail ;  for  that 
reverence,  deep-seated  and  all-pervading,  is 
the  finest  test  of  culture,  the  highest  attain- 
ment in  character,  and  the  surest  warrant  for 
social  efficiency. 

And  these  great  ends — culture,  character 
and  social  efficiency — the  true  college  must 
set  before  itself.  The  great  means  to  these 
ends  are  unmistakable :  an  environment  suffi- 
ciently complex  to  give  acquaintance  with 
the  great  fundamental  facts  of  the  world  and 
to  call  out  the  entire  man ;  the  completest 
possible  expressive  activity  on  the  part  of  the 
student;  and  personal  association  with  broad 
and  wise  and  noble  lives.  The  spirit  de- 
manded is  equally  indisputable — broadly  but 
discriminatingly  catholic  in  its  interests ;  ob- 
jective in  mood  and  method;  democratic, 
unselfish  and  finely  reverent  in  its  personal 
relations. 


7O      PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

In  all — means  and  spirit — the  primacy  of 
the  person  is  to  be  steadfastly  maintained. 
All  that  is  most  valuable  in  college  education 
exists  only  in  living  men.  "God  give  us  men." 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL  NATURE 
OF   RELIGION 

Is  religion  of  really  fundamental  impor- 
tance, or  can  we  easily  dispense  with  it?  Is 
the  real  trend  of  the  scientific  and  educa- 
tional and  ethical  life  of  the  world  away  from 
religion,  or  toward  a  deeper  recognition  of 
it?  Is  religion  something  external,  to  be 
merely  tacked  or  pasted  on  to  life,  or  is  it 
absolutely  fundamental  to  life,  touching  every 
part  of  it?  No  questions  can  be  more  im- 
portant than  these  questions ;  the  answer  to 
none  concerns  us  more  deeply. 

But  a  satisfactory  answer  here  must  be 
thoroughgoing.  No  shallow  investigation 
can  suffice.  And  we  can  hardly  expect  to 
come  to  any  profound  conviction  of  the  fun- 
damental nature  of  religion,  without  careful 
consideration  of  its  relation  to  education,  to 
ethics,  and  to  life.  If  religion  is  of  funda- 
mental importance,  such  a  consideration 
ought  to  make  that  clear. 

(70 


72      PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 
I.    RELIGION   AND   EDUCATION 

And  if  we  ask  first  as  to  the  relation  of 
religion  and  education  (so  far  as  education 
is  not  merely  technical  or  professional) ,  we 
seem  bound  to  say  that  the  relation  is  here  so 
intimate  that  we  cannot  separate  either  at  its  best 
from  the  essential  spirit  of  the  other.  The  mod- 
ern world  believes  in  education  as  it  believes 
in  almost  nothing  else.  Let  us  see,  then,  the 
inevitable  outcome  of  a  comparison  of  relig- 
ion and  education  as  to  aim,  as  to  means  and 
spirit,  as  to  method,  and  as  to  results. 

i.  In  the  first  place,  I  think  it  must  be 
said  that  the  ultimate  aims  of  religion  and 
education  are  essentially  the  same.  For,  on 
the  one  hand,  the  best  education  seeks  to 
call  out  the  whole  man  in  his  highest  har- 
monious development.  That  education  often 
falls  short  of  this  highest  aim,  must  of  course 
be  granted;  but  to  this  ideal  it  must  never- 
theless be  held,  and  any  education  must  be 
regarded  as  defective  in  just  the  degree  in 
which  it  fails  to  accomplish  this  aim. 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION  73 

Religion,  too,  at  its  highest,  as  looking 
always  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  supreme  per- 
sonal relation,  involves  everywhere  the  full 
personality  in  its  highest  possible  response ; 
and,  just  so  far  as  it  attains  its  aim,  must 
touch  and  quicken  every  faculty,  must  call 
out  the  entire  man — volitionally,  emotionally, 
intellectually.  In  the  concrete  case,  doubt- 
less, religion  also  fails  all  too  often  to  reach 
its  final  goal ;  but  the  power  of  the  gen- 
uine religious  experience  to  quicken  to  its 
best  the  entire  personality  of  the  man,  can- 
not be  doubted.  The  ideal  aims,  therefore, 
both  of  education  and  religion,  surely  fall 
together. 

2.  If  one  compares  religion  and  education, 
in  the  second  place,  as  to  means  and  spirit, 
a  similar  result  is  obtained.  For,  on  the  one 
hand,  true  education  must  offer,  as  I  have 
elsewhere  said,  "the  opportunity  to  use  one's 
full  powers  in  a  wisely  chosen  complex 
environment,  in  association  with  the  best ; 
and  all  this  in  an  atmosphere  catholic  in  its 
interests,  objective  in  spirit  and  method,  and 


74     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

finely  reverent  in  its  personal  relations." 
That  is,  the  great  means  in  the  truest  educa- 
tion are  broad  environment,  work  calling  out 
the  whole  man,  and  personal  association. 
The  spirit  demanded  is  catholic,  objective 
and  loving. 

Now,  if  these  means  and  this  spirit  are 
those  properly  demanded  in  true  education, 
just  these  means  and  just  this  spirit,  it  must 
be  said,  in  like  manner  hold  throughout  for 
religion  also.  That  this  is  for  the  most  part 
true  would  probably  hardly  be  questioned 
by  any;  and  it  may  be  maintained  that  the 
parallel  holds  even  as  to  the  catholic  and  the 
objective  spirit,  where  perhaps  most  question 
would  arise. 

For,  as  to  the  first,  we  are  coming  to  see 
with  increasing  clearness  that  the  true  spirit 
of  the  life  of  religion,  as  of  the  life  of  cul- 
ture, must  be  that  of  a  broad  catholicity. 
As  Wundt  says,  "the  dangers  that  come  with 
civilization  can  be  met  only  by  the  further 
advance  of  civilization."  Psychological  in- 
vestigation, in  its  insistence  upon  the  neces- 


THE     FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE     OF    RELIGION  75 

sity  of  a  wide  range  of  interests  for  the 
large  and  free  and  sane  life,  is  forcing 
upon  us  everywhere  the  conviction  that  no 
ideal  interest  has  anything  to  gain  by  exclu- 
siveness ;  that  it  is  not  in  the  true  interest  of 
the  sacred  to  attempt  to  draw  a  sharp  line 
between  the  sacred  and  the  secular;  that, 
in  point  of  fact,  the  denial  of  legitimate 
worldly  interests  only  limits  the  possible 
sphere  of  morality  and  religion.  Every  at- 
tempt to  preserve  something  as  especially 
sacred  by  setting  it  apart  from  all  the  rest 
of  life,  results  inevitably  in  leaving  it  apart — 
out  of  vital  contact  with  the  rest  of  life,  in 
failing  to  permeate  life  with  its  power.  This 
has  happened,  for  example,  again  and  again, 
in  false  attempts  to  exalt  the  Bible.  Religion 
must,  rather,  believe  in  itself  so  profoundly 
as  to  be  certain  that  no  part  of  the  life  and 
work  of  the  world  can  come  to  its  best 
except  as  it  is  permeated  with  the  religious 
spirit.  Religion,  therefore,  equally  with  edu- 
cation, must  be  catholic  in  its  spirit. 

Not  less   earnest  must    be    the  insistence 


76      PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

that,  equally  with  education,  the  spirit  of  reli- 
gion must  be  predominantly  objective.  It  is 
indeed  true  that  men  have  very  commonly 
believed  that  the  sphere  of  religion  was  pre- 
eminently a  sphere  for  introspection ;  but, 
unless  the  whole  modern  study  of  man  is  mis- 
taken in  its  clear  conviction  that  in  body  and 
mind  we  are  made  for  action,  the  sphere  of 
introspection,  even  in  religion,  must  be  de- 
cidedly limited,  and  much  more  limited  than 
has  often  been  conceived  to  be  the  case. 
There  is  no  doubt  a  place  for  a  certain  amount 
of  self-examination,  and  it  can  be  clearly  indi- 
cated just  what  that  place  is.  There  should 
be,  namely,  just  so  much  introspection  as  may 
make  a  man  certain  that  he  is  really  putting 
himself  in  the  presence  of  the  great  objective 
forces  that  make  for  character  and  godliness. 
Having  determined  that,  the  less  a  man's  gaze 
is  turned  in  upon  himself,  the  better  both  for 
his  character  and  for  his  religion.  It  is  not 
less  true,  then,  in  religion  than  in  education, 
that  the  prevailing  mood  must  be  everywhere 
the  objective  mood. 


THB    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION  ^^ 

As  to  both  means  and  spirit,  then,  we  may 
unhesitatingly  conclude  that  the  ideals,  both 
of  religion  and  of  education,  are  in  agree- 
ment. An  education,  thoroughgoing  in  the 
use  of  these  means  and  completely  informed 
by  such  a  spirit,  cannot  be  really  w godless." 
It  is  only  shallow  insight  that  can  so  see  it. 
We  need  to  insist  only  that  the  education 
shall  be  real  education  —  education  of  the 
entire  man.  And  religion,  too,  is  so  seen 
not  to  be  some  simply  external  thing  that 
can  be  merely  spliced  on  to  life,  but  an 
essential  factor,  implying  the  greatest  means 
and  moved  by  the  highest  spirit. 

3.  If,  in  the  third  place,  we  compare  re- 
ligion and  education  as  to  method,  it  must  be 
said  that  the  ruling  method  in  both  is  the 
same, —  staying  persistently  in  the  presence 
of  the  best  in  each  sphere  of  value. 

For  education,  conceived  as  culture, 
should  give  especially  ability  to  enter  into 
all  values  with  appreciation  and  conviction, 
— conviction  strong  enough  to  be  ready  to 
pass  into  act.  We  can  hardly  ask  less  than 


78      PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

this  in  any  well -rounded  education.  No 
man  can  be  called  fully  cultured  to  whom 
are  closed  the  doors  of  any  of  the  great 
kingdoms  of  worth. 

And  religion,  in  like  manner,  asks  that 
men  should  become  sufficiently  cultured  to 
be  able  to  appreciate  Christianity — religion 
at  its  best.  For  all  values  finally  go  back 
to  the  riches  of  some  personal  life.  We 
cannot  be  too  often  reminded  that  the  best 
the  world  has  ever  shown  us  in  literature, 
or  music,  or  art,  is  but  a  partial  revelation 
of  the  inner  riches  of  some  personal  life. 
So  Kaftan  is  in  the  habit  of  saying  in  his 
lectures  at  the  University  of  Berlin,  that  the 
greatest  problem  of  life  is  the  problem  of 
appreciative  understanding  of  the  great  per- 
sonalities of  history.  The  highest  conceivable 
culture,  therefore,  would  be  the  culture 
that  should  enable  a  man  to  enter  with 
appreciation  and  conviction  into  the  deepest 
and  most  significant  personal  life  of  history ; 
and  the  world  is  coming  to  see  with  greater 
clearness  every  day  that  that  life  is  the  life 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION  7Q 

of  Jesus  Christ.  The  world  of  the  beautiful 
and  of  art,  therefore,  one  may  properly  hold 
with  Browning,  is  but  the  ante-chamber  of  the 
temple  of  the  full  sharing  of  the  life  of  God. 

"The  wise  who  waited  there  could  tell 
By  these,  what  royalties  in  store 
Lay  one  step  past  the  entrance  door. 


All  partial  beauty  was  a  pledge 
Of  beauty  in  its  plentitude." 

"And  all  thou  dost  enumerate 
Of  power  and  beauty  in  the  world, 
The  mightiness  of  love  was  curled 
Inextricably  about. 
Love  lay  within  it  and  without, 
To  clasp  thee." 

All  the  world  of  the  beautiful  and  of  art 
is  but  a  single  rose  thrown  over  the  garden 
wall,  as  but  a  little  hint  of  the  infinite  riches 
of  the  life  of  God. 

It  is  no  accident  that,  for  the  most  part, 
the  best  in  sculpture,  in  architecture,  in 
painting,  in  literature,  and  in  music  has  been 
most  closely  connected  with  religion,  and 
has  found  its  highest  inspiration  there.  And, 


8O      PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

where  this  is  not  the  case,  it  must  still  often 
force  itself  upon  the  feeling  of  the  thought- 
ful man  that  in  any  one  of  the  arts,  indeed, 
but  especially  in  music  at  its  greatest,  the 
medium  is  too  great  for  small  passions.  I 
suspect  that  I  only  voice  the  inner  feeling 
and  conviction  of  many  another  when  I  say 
that  the  music  of  the  best  love-songs,  for 
example,  manifestly  goes  far  beyond  them- 
selves; the  music  tells  far  more  than  the 
sentiment  itself  will  bear. 

Nor  can  this  seem  strange  to  the  man 
who  can  think  as  well  as  feel.  For,  after  all, 
in  the  first  place,  in  much  we  all  live  alone, 
a  solitary  life,  shut  up  to  ourselves  and  God. 
There  is  much,  both  of  good  and  evil,  in  us 
that  no  other  has  ever  known,  that  we  could 
hardly  conceivably  reveal  to  any  other.  Only 
to  God  is  the  deepest  in  us  "naked  and  laid 
open."  And  that  means  that  only  unto  God 
can  that  complete  revelation  of  ourselves  be 
made  that  must  underlie  the  deepest  per- 
sonal relation  of  which  we  are  capable. 

Moreover,  men  are  mastered  in  different 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION  8l 

degrees  by  two  great  contrary  instincts — the 
instinct,  on  the  one  hand,  to  self-devotion ; 
the  instinct,  on  the  other,  of  an  insatiate  thirst 
for  love ;  and  there  is  only  one  relation  in 
which  a  man  can  give  himself  with  absolute 
devotion,  only  one  in  which  the  response  can 
wholly  satisfy,  if  a  man  is  fully  awake  to  the 
real  and  ultimate  meaning  of  his  experiences. 
And  this  means  that  we  are  helpless  in  the 
face  of  the  deepest  instincts  in  us  apart  from 
God.  "I  came  from  God,"  George  Mac- 
Donald  makes  one  of  his  characters  say,  "and 
I'm  going  back  to  God,  and  I  won't  have 
any  gaps  of  death  in  the  middle  of  my  life." 
It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  only  under  the 
great  motives  of  religion  should  the  artistic 
medium  be  felt  to  be  fully  filled  by  the  senti- 
ment it  carries.  Even  the  aesthetic  power  of 
our  natures  is  swept  in  its  full  compass  only 
by  the  undying  religious  appeal;  because, 
only  a  conviction  essentially  religious  can 
assure  us  of  the  final  and  complete  worth- 
fulness  of  life.  We  need  to  be  able  to 
respond  with  some  real  conviction  to  the 
p 


82       PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

prophetic  appeal:  w Arise,  shine,  for  thy  light 
is  come,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen 
upon  thee."  "Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye 
gates,  and  be  ye  lifted  up,  ye  everlasting 
doors,  and  the  King  of  glory  shall  come  in." 
4.  Once  more,  religion  and  education  are 
most  closely  akin  in  the  final  results  attained. 
The  highest  results  of  a  true  education  are 
convictions  and  ideals.  The  danger,  no  doubt, 
of  a  shallow  education  is  over -sophistication 
— the  false  tolerance  that  is  essentially  indif- 
ferentism,  because  the  great  fundamental  con- 
victions and  ideals  have  lost  their  hold  on  the 
man.  Nevertheless,  if  it  is  the  business  of  a 
true  education  to  fit  for  high  and  rational 
living,  then  it  must  still  be  true  that  the 
highest  results  to  be  demanded  from  such  an 
education  are  convictions  and  ideals ;  and  the 
deepest  convictions  and  the  highest  ideals,  it 
should  be  remembered,  are  those  of  religion. 
For  no  convictions  go  deeper,  and  none  are 
more  vital  than  religion's  great  assertions  of 
the  love  of  God  and  the  life  of  love ;  they 
are  practically  all-inclusive.  And  even  edu- 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION  83 

cation  would  have  reached  its  highest  con- 
ceivable result  only  in  the  establishment  of 
these  convictions  and  their  implied  ideals. 
The  real  forces  in  education  are  persons, 
even  on  the  intellectual  side.  The  greatest 
results  of  education  are  convictions  and 
ideals.  And  the  supreme  persons,  convic- 
tions and  ideals  are  those  of  religion  —  are 
Christian. 

We  may,  then,  reasonably  conclude  that  in 
aim,  in  means  and  spirit,  in  method,  and  in 
results,  religion  and  education  may  be  said 
essentially  to  agree.  And  that  is  to  say:  It  is 
not  possible  for  us  to  stand  strongly  for  edu- 
cation in  its  full  modern  sense,  and  not  find 
ourselves  driven  to  the  recognition  of  essential 
religion. 

II.     RELIGION    AND    ETHICS 

From  this  comparison,  now,  of  religion 
and  education,  let  us  turn  to  the  comparison 
of  religion  and  ethics,  and  see  here,  too,  how 
impossible  it  is  to  conceive  either  at  its  best 
apart  from  the  other. 


84       PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

1.  For,    on    the    one    hand,    if    the    true 
ethical   life  is  the  fulfilment  of   all   personal 
relations,    then   an   impartial    and    thorough- 
going ethics  must  involve   religion.    For  the 
spirit  of   the  life  that  means  to  throw  itself 
with  impartial   loyalty  into  the  fulfilment  of 
all  personal  relations  in  which  it  finds  itself, 
certainly  cannot  logically  leave  out  the  most 
fundamental    and    significant   relation   of   all. 
And,  if  there  is  a  God  at  all,  the  relation  in 
which  we  stand  to  Him  must  be  just  that  most 
fundamental  and  significant  relation.    Not  to 
fulfil    that    relation   is,    then,    not   merely   to 
have  failed  on  the  religious  side,  but  to  have 
failed    in    any    consistent    fulfilment    of    our 
acknowledged   ethical   aim.    From  this  point 
of  view,  ethics  involves  religion. 

2.  Or  if,   on  the  other  hand,  we  look  at 
the  matter   from   the   point   of  view  of   reli- 
gion, we   have   here,  too,   to   recognize  that 
religion  is  the  fulfilment  of  exactly  that  per- 
sonal relation  which  gives  reality  and  mean- 
ing and   value   to  all   other   relations.   These 
owe   the  very  fact  of   their   existence   to  the 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION          85 

purpose  of  God ;  they  owe  their  meaning  to 
what  He  has  put  into  them ;  and  they  have 
the  value  that  is  theirs  only  because  He  has 
so  established  it.  To  the  man  of  religious 
conviction,  therefore,  the  religious  position 
of  one  whom  he  loves  becomes  inevitably 
the  most  important  of  all  matters;  because 
he  knows  that,  in  very  fact,  this  relation  to 
God  is  the  one  essential  relation  which,  itself 
set  right,  sets  all  others  right.  The  religious 
man  believes,  not  without  full  warrant,  that 
the  man  who  has  come  into  a  true  relation 
to  the  God  of  character  revealed  in  Jesus 
Christ,  must  thereby  have  put  himself,  in 
just  that  degree,  into  absolutely  right  rela- 
tions with  other  men.  The  first  and  second 
commandments  are  indissoluble ;  and  religion 
is  here  seen  to  involve  ethics,  as,  before,  ethics 
involved  religion. 

3.  Indeed,  if  we  strive  to  take  the  ethical 
laws  simply  as  laws  of  our  own  nature,  even 
so  we  can  hardly  help  connecting  them 
with  the  great  ongoing  righteous  trend  of 
the  universe,  else  we  could  not  reverence 


86       PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

them ;  and  this  is  an  essentially  religious 
conviction.  For  we  must  take  the  laws  of 
our  own  being  as  at  least  a  partial  manifes- 
tation of  the  essential  nature  of  things.  We 
have  not  conferred  our  nature  upon  our- 
selves, and  the  laws  which  we  find  revealed 
in  it  are  not  of  our  own  creation.  We  can- 
not, therefore,  recognize  them  as  carrying 
in  any  degree  the  consent  of  our  reason  and 
conscience  without  thereby  rendering  the 
tribute  of  our  deepest  reverence  to  this 
essential  nature  of  things  in  its  highest  reve- 
lation in  ourselves.  Here,  too,  then,  a  con- 
viction essentially  religious  underlies  the 
ethical. 

Wundt's  thoroughgoing  study  of  The  Facts 
of  the  Moral  Life  may  be  taken  as  confirm- 
ing this  result,  in  his  insistence  that  "the 
whole  development  of  human  morality  rests 
on  the  expression  of  these  two  fundamental 
impulses  of  human  nature" — "the  feelings  of 
reverence  and  affection."  Of  these,  one,  at 
least,  is  distinctly  religious.  And  how  im- 
portant the  religious  element  is,  Wundt 


THE     FUNDAMENTAL     NATURE     OF    RELIGION  87 

bears  witness  when,  in  speaking  earlier  even 
of  the  development  of  the  forms  of  human 
society,  he  says:  "Here,  again,  it  is  the  reli- 
gious factors  that  constitute  the  most  impor- 
tant of  all  aids  to  moral  evolution,  whether 
found  within  or  without  the  sphere  of 
morality  itself."1 

4.  For  us  Americans,  too,  there  is  a  his- 
torical reason  why  we  can  hardly  separate 
the  ethical  and  the  religious  without  a  denial 
of  ourselves.  For  our  national  character  has 
had  a  religious  basis,  and  has  been  plainly 
glorified  thereby.  When  William  Stoughton, 
in  1688,  in  words  that  John  Fiske  asserts 
must  be  taken  as  literally  true,  said  of  our 
Puritan  ancestors,  "God  sifted  a  whole  nation 
that  he  might  send  choice  grain  into  the 
wilderness,"  he  reminds  us  how  great  these 
founders  of  our  national  life  were,  and  how 
transcendent  was  their  service.  And  their 
greatness  lay  in  their  convictions  and  their 
conscience.  And  any  "new  Puritanism"  in 
life  needs  beneath  it  the  old  Puritan  reli- 

1Op.  «'/.,  pp.  328,  226. 


88       PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN  EDUCATION 

gious  convictions  in  their  seership,  in  their 
prophet's  sense  of  God  and  the  spiritual 
world  as  the  realest  of  all  realities,  in  their 
consequent  sense  of  commission,  vocation, 
divine  calling  —  the  apostle's  sense  of  being 
called  to  an  "imperishable  work  in  the 
world" — and  in  their  resulting  conviction  of 
responsibility  and  accountability.  This  tre- 
mendous sense  of  the  significance  and  value 
of  life  in  the  doing  of  the  will  of  God  as 
co-partners  with  him, — this  sense  had  power, 
and  must  ever  have  power,  to  lift  men  above 
the  petty  and  the  prejudiced  and  the  par- 
tisan. Macaulay  was  certainly  no  eulogist  of 
the  Puritans,  but  Macaulay  saw  that  their 
"coolness  of  judgment  and  immutability  of 
purpose"  were  "the  necessary  effects  of  their 
religious  zeal."  And,  if  we  are  to  be  worthy 
successors  of  worthy  sires,  we  must  bind  our 
ethical  life  up  indissolubly  with  their  great 
religious  convictions. 

In  truth,  from  whatever  point  of  view  we 
choose  to  consider  them,  if  we  look  deeply 
into  both,  we  can  hardly  fail  to  find  that, 


THE     FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE     OF    RELIGION  89 

in  Wundt's  words,  "religion  and  morality 
tend  more  and  more  to  blend  in  an  insepa- 
rable unity."  Religion  is  the  sharing  of  the 
life  of  God,  and  no  man  may  share  the  life 
of  the  God  of  character  without  character. 


III.    RELIGION    AND    LIFE 

If  there  is  any  one  emphasis  of  our  time 
more  powerful  than  the  emphases  upon  edu- 
cation and  the  ethical,  it  is  the  emphasis  on 
life.  The  demand  for  life,  real,  full,  and  sat- 
isfying, is  the  deepest  instinct  of  our  time. 

"  'Tis  life  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant ; 


More  life  and  fuller,  that  I  want." 

So  far  is  this  true,  that  Professor  Leuba  feels 
justified  in  saying,  as  the  result  of  his  study 
of  the  religious  consciousness  of  the  Protes- 
tant Anglo-Saxon :  "The  preservation  and  in- 
crease of  life  is  the  moving  impulse  as  well 
of  religion  as  of  secular  activity."  In  our 
search,  then,  for  the  fundamental  nature 
of  religion,  let  us  turn  from  this  compari- 


90       PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

son  of  religion  and  education,  and  of  relig- 
ion and  ethics,  to  the  comparison  of  re- 
ligion and  life,  and  let  us  see  how  surely 
a  faith  that  is  essentially  religious  logically 
underlies  all  our  reasoning,  all  work  worth 
doing,  all  strenuous  moral  endeavor,  all 
earnest  social  service ;  how  permeated  with 
the  religious,  therefore,  all  life  at  its  highest 
must  be. 

i.  For,  in  the  first  place,  a  faith  essen- 
tially religious  logically  underlies  all  our  rea- 
soning. For  every  argument  that  we  can  pos- 
sibly make,  especially  concerning  any  of  the 
greater  interests  of  life,  must  go  forward 
upon  the  double  assumption  of  the  consis- 
tency and  the  worth  of  the  world.  We  can 
reason  at  all,  only  so  far  as  we  have  already 
virtually  asserted  that  the  world  is  a  world 
in  which  we  can  rationally  think;  and  our 
most  significant  arguments  require,  as  well, 
that  we  should  add  the  faith  that  the  world 
is  a  world  in  which  we  can  rationally  live. 
That,  in  other  words,  there  is  the  unity  and 
consistency  of  one  truth  and  of  a  unified 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION  QI 

reason  in  the  world,  and  an  essential  love  at 
its  heart  that  makes  life  abundantly  worth 
living.  And  these  two  fundamental  assump- 
tions of  all  our  reasoning  are  essentially 
religious  convictions. 

That  men  often  do  not  recognize  these 
logical  implications  of  their  reasoning,  and 
may  use  with  great  complacency  impersonal 
and  irreligious  language  concerning  their  ex- 
perience that  will  not  bear  thinking  through 
—  this  is  all  too  true;  but  this  does  not  alter 
the  fact  of  the  ultimate  logical  implications 
of  their  deepest  thinking  and  living.  The 
mere  report,  therefore,  of  the  psychological 
facts  of  a  man's  religious  experience,  as  he 
conceives  it,  is  by  no  means  the  final  step  in 
any  fundamental  religious  inquiry. 

2.  In  the  same  way,  a  faith  essentially 
religious  underlies  all  work  worth  doing.  For, 
as  Paulsen  says,  speaking  simply  as  a  philos- 
opher, "Whoever  devotes  his  life  to  a  cause 
believes  in  that  cause;  and  this  belief,  be  his 
creed  what  it  may,  has  always  something  of 
the  form  of  religion."  w  Hence,"  he  adds, 


92       PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

"faith  infers  that  an  inner  connection  exists 
between  the  real  and  the  valuable  within  the 
domain  of  history,  and  believes  that  in  history 
something  like  an  immanent  principle  of  rea- 
son or  justice  favors  the  right  and  the  good 
and  leads  it  to  victory  over  all  resisting 
forces."1  It  is  impossible,  that  is,  for  a  man 
with  full  consciousness  to  throw  himself  en- 
thusiastically into  a  work  which  he  regards 
from  the  start  as  absolutely  hopeless.  When, 
then,  he  takes  up  the  work  of  his  life  calling, 
or  the  cause  to  which  he  devotes  himself, 
as  work  really  worth  while,  in  which  he  can 
lose  himself  with  joy,  whether  consciously 
or  not,  he  is  virtually  asserting  his  faith  in  a 
plan  larger  than  his  own  plan,  the  all-embrac- 
ing plan  of  the  on-going  providence  of  God, 
which  shall  catch  up  the  little  fragments  of 
his  work  into  a  larger  whole  and  make  them 
contribute,  thus,  to  a  goal  greater  than  any 
that  the  man  himself  may  set.  To  believe 
in  the  final  worth  of  one's  own  work,  then, 
logically  implies  a  real  belief  in  God.  For 

1  Introduction  to  Philosophy,  pp.  8,  9. 


THZ!    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION  93 

"principles"  and  "plans"  and  "laws,"  so  far 
as  I  am  able  to  see,  have  no  real  existence, 
that  will  bear  thorough  thinking,  and  can 
do  nothing,  apart  from  Being  that  must  be 
conceived  ultimately  in  essentially  personal 
terms.  A  fully  religious  conviction  logically 
underlies  all  enthusiastic  work. 

3.  In  all  strenuous  moral  endeavor ,  in  the 
fight  for  character  for  one's  self,  a  faith  es- 
sentially religious  is  in  like  manner  involved. 
So  Martineau  asserts:  "Nothing  less  than  the 
majesty  of  God,  and  the  power  of  the  world 
to  come,  can  maintain  the  place  and  sanctity 
of  our  homes,  the  order  and  serenity  of  our 
minds,  the  spirit  of  patience  and  tender  mercy 
in  our  hearts."  For  here,  once  more,  we  shall 
not  earnestly  attempt  a  hopeless  task.  And 
if,  in  the  surrender  to  the  highest  in  us, 
we  cannot  believe  that  we  thereby  at  the 
same  time  link  ourselves  to  the  highest  in 
the  universe,  we  shall  not  be  able  to  reach 
that  courage  which  gives  promise  of  any 
high  attainment.  Only  the  highest  motives 
are  finally  sufficient  here.  If  our  faith  in 


94       PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN  EDUCATION 

the  ultimate  ethical  trend  of  the  great  power 
back  of  the  universe  really  breaks  down, 
we  shall  hardly  be  able  to  keep  our  faith 
even  in  our  own  ideals. 

That  this  faith  in  the  ethical  trend  of  the 
universe  is  always  consciously  present,  or 
even  the  need  of  it  definitely  felt  in  any 
recognized  religious  way,  I  am  far  from 
affirming.  There  may  even  be  such  a  kind 
of  intoxication  with  life  itself,  as  should  lead 
one,  as  in  a  recorded  case,  on  the  one  hand, 
to  deny  any  relation  to  God,  and  yet,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  assert  in  the  most  varied  and 
ardent  ways, — "I  trust  the  laws  that  govern 
my  destiny."1  And  the  emotional  and  general 
volitional  state  of  such  a  one  might  con- 
ceivably be  almost  ideal;  for  she  expresses 
so  deep  a  faith  in  the  universe  as  fairly  to 
rival  the  old  calvinistic  test  of  willingness 
to  be  damned  for  the  glory  of  God.  But 
her  intellectual  perception  of  the  real  im- 
plications of  her  "faith-state,"  I  confess,  does 
not  seem  to  me  all  that  is  to  be  desired. 

1  American  Journal  of  Religious  Psychology  and  Education,  Vol.  I, 
No.  i,  p.  72. 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION  95 

That  a  successful  business  man  should  even 
report  to  Professor  Leuba — "I  have  no  relig- 
ious need ;  I  am  devoid  of  religious  feel- 
ing"— this  is  entirely  conceivable.  But  the 
fact  by  no  means  proves  that  there  is  no 
such  need,  if  the  man  is  to  be  thoroughly 
and  consistently  rational  in  his  thinking  and 
living.  There  are  great  temperamental  dif- 
ferences here,  doubtless,  and  the  very  force 
of  life  in  us  may  carry  us  over  many  thin 
places  in  our  reasoning,  without  misgiving ; 
but  the  fact  remains  that  hopeful,  courage- 
ous, moral  endeavor  logically  requires  the 
faith  that  we  are  not  here  at  war  with  the 
ultimate  purpose  of  things. 

4.  And,  once  more,  a  faith  essentially 
religious  logically  underlies,  in  like  manner, 
all  earnest  social  service.  I  do  not  forget  that 
in  the  inconsistency  of  our  natures  men  may 
often  go  on  in  forgetfulness  of  the  real 
significance  of  their  actions,  and  in  the 
strength  of  motives  which  they  have  at  least 
formally  denied.  Nor  do  I  forget  that  it  is 
possible  for  social  service  itself  to  become, 


96        PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

for  the  time  being,  even  a  kind  of  fad,  and 
for  the  phrases  of  the  new  social  consciousness 
of  our  time  to  become  only  a  new  cant. 
Nor  do  I  forget  that  men  in  such  unselfish 
service  may  honestly  think  of  themselves, 
for  a  time,  as  not  needing  in  any  degree 
either  the  convictions  or  the  consolations  of 
religion. 

Nevertheless,  when  I  try  really  to  think 
the  situation  through,  I  am  not  able  to  doubt 
that  Nash  is  right  when  he  says:  "Nothing 
save  a  settled  and  fervid  conviction  that  the 
universe  is  on  the  side  of  the  will  . 
can  give  the  will  the  force  and  edge  suit- 
able." For  here,  also,  we  shall  not  throw 
ourselves  with  all  abandon  into  a  task  that 
we  think  either  hopeless  or  worthless.  And 
that  means  that  we  must  have  back  of  our 
social  service  the  great  religious  convictions 
of  the  love  of  God  and  the  worth  of  men. 
We  shall  not  attempt  to  dip  out  the  ocean 
with  a  cup,  and  we  shall  not  enter  on  a 
boundless  social  task  in  which  there  is  no 
hope  of  accomplishing  any  permanent  and 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION  gj 

large  result.  We  must  believe  here  that 
we  work  with  God,  in  line  with  his  own 
purpose,  and  that  the  mighty  will  of  the 
living  God  is  pledged  to  our  attempt. 

So,  too,  must  we  believe  that  we  ourselves 
and  those  for  whom  we  work  have  a  person- 
ality great  enough  to  make  the  sacrifice 
rational.  Let  religious  faith  in  the  immortality 
of  men  be  once  thoroughly  sapped,  let  men 
be  once  fully  persuaded  that  man  is  not  a 
creature  of  the  endless  life,  that  he  is  not 
capable  of  an  absolutely  endless  development, 
and  that  there  is  in  his  constitution  no  pledge 
of  the  eternal  years,  and  the  immortal  hope 
dies  down  not  only  in  us,  but  the  value  of 
all  those  for  whom  we  labor  is  essentially 
lowered.  It  is  not  merely  that  our  lives  have 
lost  value ;  the  life  of  the  other,  also,  has 
become  comparatively  worthless,  and  our 
self-sacrificing  altruistic  service  becomes  vain 
and  irrational.  We  shall  not  ultimately  be 
capable  of  acts  of  supreme  self-sacrifice  on 
behalf  of  a  creature  merely  of  a  day.  And 
faith  essentially  religious,  therefore,  is  neces- 


98        PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

sitated,  and,  whether  consciously  or  not,  logi- 
cally  implied  in    all  earnest   social   service. 

And  when  we  have  thus  said  that  a  relig- 
ious faith  logically  underlies  all  our  rea- 
soning, all  work  worth  doing,  all  strenuous 
moral  endeavor,  and  all  earnest  social  ser- 
vice, we  have  already  asserted  that  religion 
is  inseparable  from  life.  Benjamin  Kidd,  in 
his  study  of  social  evolution,  insists  that  "the 
evolution  which  is  slowly  proceeding  in 
human  society  is  not  primarily  intellectual, 
but  religious  in  character."1  And  though  he 
uses  the  term  "religious"  in  the  sense  rather 
of  the  altruistic,  his  contention  may  surely 
be  regarded  as  essentially  correct;  for,  as 
have  we  just  seen,  this  spirit  of  willing  self- 
sacrifice  for  others  builds  on  a  faith  really 
religious.  Fairbairn's  conclusion  is,  thus, 
thrust  upon  us:  "Religion  is  the  supreme 
factor  in  the  organizing  and  regulating  of 
our  personal  and  collective  life."  We  can 
hardly  take  a  step  in  any  direction  that  we 
can  regard  as  really  significant,  without  a 

1  Social  Evolution,  p.  263. 


THE     FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE     OF    RELIGION  99 

virtual  assertion  of  God,  of  the  sanctity  of 
his  will,  and  of  the  worth  of  men. 

It  is  but  an  illustration  of  this  inevitable- 
ness  of  religion,  that,  in  an  introduction  to 
a  recent  edition  of  Wesley's  Journal,  Hugh 
Price  Hughes  should  say:  "He  who  desires 
to  understand  the  real  history  of  the  Eng- 
lish people  during  the  seventeenth,  eigh- 
teenth and  nineteenth  centuries  should  read 
most  carefully  three  books :  George  Fox's 
Journal,  John  Wesley's  Journal,  and  John 
Henry  Newman's  Apologia  pro  Vita  Sua. 
.  .  .  The  Religious  Question  cannot  be 
ignored.  It  is  the  Question;  in  the  deepest 
sense  it  is  the  only  Question.  It  has  always 
determined  the  course  of  history  every- 
where." To  similar  import,  Brierley  says  in 
the  preface  to  his  Problems  of  Living:  "Spite 
of  the  modern  assertion  to  the  contrary,  our 
problems  of  living  are  finally  religious,  and 
look  to  religion  for  their  solution." 

Nor  can  this  seem  to  the  thoughtful  man 
strange,  when  he  thinks  that,  if  religion  is 
really  communion  with  God,  the  fulfilment 


IOO     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

of  that  personal  relation  most  essential  to 
man,  then  religion  can  hardly  fail  to  give 
the  ideal  conditions  of  the  richest  life.  It  is 
the  great  claim  and  challenge  of  Christ 
that  He  is  come  that  men  "may  have  life, 
and  may  have  it  abundantly."  He  welcomes 
just  this  test,  and  is  willing  to  abide  the 
issue.  He  brings,  He  says,  not  limitation  of 
life,  but  life  itself,  the  fullest,  richest,  larg- 
est life. 

Or  if,  in  harmony  with  the  social  con- 
sciousness of  our  time,  we  think  of  life  as 
love,  we  have  only  struck  the  note  of  Chris- 
tianity's most  fundamental  conviction.  Or  if, 
with  Kaftan,  we  find  the  great  problem  and 
joy  of  life  in  the  appreciative  understand- 
ing of  the  great  personalities  of  history, 
then  in  Christianity  we  are  confronted  again 
with  the  one  great  central  supreme  per- 
sonality of  Jesus  Christ.  Or,  if  we  try  to 
think  of  the  highest  conceivable  goal  of  life, 
we  can  hardly  set  before  ourselves  anything 
greater  than  the  possible  sharing  of  the  life 
of  the  infinite  God.  Compared  with  the 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION         IOI 

infinity  of  the  religious  outlook,  all  other 
aims  and  goals  are  poor  indeed. 

Or  if,  once  more,  we  ask  from  psychology 
a  statement  of  those  ideal  conditions  of  the 
richest  life,  and  get  its  answer —  Reverent 
association,  and  work  in  which  one  can  for- 
get himself;  we  can  then  hardly  fail  to  see 
that  exactly  these  greatest  means  and  greatest 
conditions  are  given  in  religion.  For  here 
alone  are  the  most  intimate  and  unobtrusive 
association  with  the  Spirit  of  the  Highest, 
and  work  for  the  Kingdom  of  God — God- 
given  and  large  enough  for  a  man  to  lose 
himself  in  it  with  joy. 

We  are  thus  unavoidably  brought  to  our 
conclusion,  and  to  Christ's  great  insistence: 
Religion  is  life.  "This  is  life  eternal,  that 
they  should  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God, 
and  Him  whom  thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus 
Christ." 

No  doubt,  the  depth  of  a  man's  religion 
must  depend  on  the  depth  of  his  conviction 
as  to  the  significance  of  life ;  and  his  felt  need 
of  religion,  on  the  claim  he  makes  on  life. 


102     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

The  man  who  requires  little  from  life  will 
have  little  conscious  need  of  religion.  But  in 
just  the  proportion  in  which  he  awakes  to  the 
real  meaning  of  the  life  into  which  he  is  called 
and  of  the  true  greatness  of  his  own  nature, 
in  just  that  degree  must  he  awake  to  the  need 
of  more  than  the  finite  can  give  —  to  the  need 
of  religion  and  to  its  indispensable  contribu- 
tion to  life.  What  religion  requires,  above  all, 
is  not  credulity,  but  simply  that  a  man  should 
be  really  awake.  "Man's  unhappiness,"  Car- 
lyle  says,  "as  I  construe,  comes  from  his  great- 
ness; it  is  because  there  is  an  Infinite  in  him, 
which  with  all  his  cunning  he  cannot  quite 
bury  under  the  Finite."  He  cannot  satisfy 
the  infinite  though  unconscious  thirst  of  his 
nature  with  finite  things. 

It  is  no  new  heresy,  then,  though  it  has 
been  so  called,  to  assert  that  in  this  sense 
religion  grows  out  of  the  claim  on  life.  For 
it  is,  after  all,  only  a  modern  echo  of  that 
great  sentence  of  Augustine  that  has  voiced 
the  heart  of  the  Church  through  the  centuries: 
"Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thyself,  and  our 


THE    FUNDAMENTAL    NATURE    OF    RELIGION         103 

hearts  are  restless  until  they  find  rest  in 
Thee."  In  our  deepest  nature,  then,  we  are 
religious,  and  we  cannot  escape  it.  We  were 
never  meant  to  come  to  our  best  in  inde- 
pendence either  of  our  neighbor  or  of  God. 
Man  is  alone  the  religious  animal,  and  he 
cannot  escape  the  demand  of  religion  until 
he  escapes  from  his  deepest  self.  No  won- 
der that  Sabatier  should  say:  "Man  is  in- 
curably religious."  Or  that  Royce  should 
give  "the  highest  worth  to  religion  among 
the  interests  of  humanity."  Or  that  Coe 
should  affirm :  "Worship  is  so  wrought  into 
the  fiber  of  our  minds  that  we  need  only 
come  to  ourselves  to  find  God."1  Or  that 
Granger  should  say,  even  in  arguing  for  the 
right  of  free  thought  in  matters  of  religion: 
"The  religious  sentiment  needs  no  adventi- 
tious aids,  for  it  is  safe  here  to  trust  the 
unbiased  instincts  of  mankind.  So  far  as 
prophecy  can  reach,  it  seems  certain  that 
man  will  always  worship,  and  that  the  sym- 
bols of  the  Christian  tradition  will  afford  the 

1  The  Religion  of  a  Mature  Mind,  p.  250. 


IO4     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

ultimate  vehicle  of  his  devotion."1  We  can 
hardly  do  less,  therefore,  than  to  confess  with 
George  Macdonald :  "Life  and  religion  are 
one,  or  neither  is  anything.  Religion  is  no 
way  of  life,  no  show  of  life,  no  observance 
of  any  sort.  It  is  neither  the  food  nor  the 
medicine  of  being.  It  is  life  essential." 

Is  religion  of  really  fundamental  impor- 
tance, or  can  we  easily  dispense  with  it? 

No  age  ever  believed  more  than  our  own 
in  education,  in  the  ethical,  in  life.  No  age 
ever  demanded  more  imperiously  the  best 
that  education,  ethical  living,  and  the  rich- 
est experiences  of  life  can  give.  And  the 
truest  thinking  of  our  time  indicates  that 
into  this  best  no  age  and  no  man  may  come 
without  religion.  We  cannot  dispense  with 
religion ;  it  is  absolutely  fundamental  in  its 
nature. 

1  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  October,  1903. 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION    AS    CONDITIONED 

BY    MODERN    PSYCHOLOGY 

AND   PEDAGOGY 

IT  is  not  proposed  in  this  discussion  to 
expound  or  to  justify  the  psychological  and 
pedagogical  principles  involved  in  religious 
education ;  the  attempt  is  rather  to  apply 
those  principles  as  directly  as  possible  to 
the  problem  of  religious  education.  More- 
over, even  in  the  application  of  the  psycho- 
logical and  pedagogical  principles,  though 
somewhat  distinct  periods  in  religious  edu- 
cation must  be  recognized,  I  shall  not  aim 
to  take  up  the  question  of  the  progressive 
adaptation  to  these  periods,  but  confine  the 
discussion  to  those  great  fundamental  prin- 
ciples which  have  almost  equal  application 
in  all  periods.  And  even  of  those  four  prin- 
ciples which  often  seem  to  me  the  greatest 
inferences  from  modern  psychology  (though 
they  are  not  absolutely  exclusive  one  of 
another)  —  the  complexity  of  life,  the  unity 

(105) 


IO6     PERSONAL  AND    IDEAL   ELEMENTS    IN    EDUCATION 

of  man,  the  central  importance  of  will  and 
action,  and  the  conviction  that  the  real  is 
always  concrete — the  first  two  may  be  but 
very  briefly  treated.  And  yet,  even  the  brief- 
est discussion  of  religious  education  ought 
not  to  fail  to  point  out  how  greatly  religion 
has  suffered  from  failure  clearly  to  recognize 
the  complexity  of  life  and  the  unity  of  the 
nature  of  man. 

And,  first,  it  concerns  the  religious  teacher 
to  see  that  psychology's  emphasis  upon  the 
complexity  of  life,  upon  the  relatedness  of 
all,  is  a  virtual  denial  of  the  possible  separa- 
tion of  the  sacred  and  the  secular.  The  very 
constitution  of  the  mind  demands,  for  the 
sake  of  the  higher  interests  themselves,  that 
they  do  not  receive  exclusive  attention.  And 
the  reaction  certain  to  follow  exclusive  atten- 
tion to  any  subject  is  only  disastrous  to  the 
interests  which  it  was  sought  thus  exclusively 
to  conserve.  Human  nature  revenges  itself 
for  any  lack  of  reasonable  regard  for  the 
wide  range  of  its  interests.  No  ideal  interest 
can  conquer  by  simple  negation,  and  no 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION  IO7 

ideal  interest  has  anything  to  gain  by  mere 
exclusiveness.  For  the  denial  of  legitimate 
worldly  interests  only  narrows  the  possible 
sphere  of  both  morals  and  religion ;  it  makes 
the  ethical  and  religious  life,  not  more,  but 
less  significant.  And  the  entire  movement,  of 
which  the  Religious  Education  Association  is 
a  part,  roots,  I  suppose,  in  a  similar  conviction. 
Religion  is  life  or  neither  is  anything,  it  has 
been  said ;  so  that  religious  education  cannot 
wisely  be  carried  on  as  an  isolated  fragment. 
Moreover,  it  is  of  peculiar  moment  to  the 
religious  teacher  to  take  account  of  the  unity 
of  man.  Because  he  ought  to  face  the  exact 
facts  and  to  know  and  obey  the  laws  of  his 
divinely  given  nature,  the  religious  teacher 
least  of  all  can  afford  to  ignore  either  the 
physical  or  the  psychical  conditions  involved 
in  the  unity  of  human  nature.  On  the  phys- 
ical side,  he  should  not  forget,  for  example, 
the  effects  of  fatigue — that  surplus  nervous 
energy  is  the  chief  physical  condition  of  self- 
control — nor  the  close  connection  of  muscu- 
lar activity  and  will,  nor  the  physical  basis 


IO8     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

of  habit.  On  the  psychical  side,  the  religious 
teacher  needs  to  consider  the  possible  help- 
ing or  hindering  influence  of  intellectual  and 
emotional  conditions.  The  moral  dangers  of 
intellectual  vagueness  and  of  strained  and 
sham  emotions  may  be  taken  as  illustrations. 

Passing  thus  with  briefest  reference  these 
important  principles,  it  is  still  possible  to  put 
with  reasonable  brevity  the  great  essentials 
of  religious  education.  They  will  be  found 
to  connect  themselves  closely  with  the  two 
other  great  inferences  from  modern  psychol- 
ogy—  the  conviction  that  the  real  is  always 
concrete,  ending  in  supreme  emphasis  on 
the  personal,  and  the  recognition  of  the 
central  importance  of  will  and  action. 

Christianity  assumes,  I  take  it,  that  the 
end  of  religious  education  is  never  mere 
knowledge  or  learning,  but  to  bring  the  in- 
dividual into  life — the  largest,  richest,  highest 
life ;  and  that  life  it  conceives  to  be  the 
sharing  of  the  life  of  God — his  character  and 
joy.  John  thus  reports  Christ  as  saying:  "I 
came  that  they  may  have  life,  and  may  have 


RELIGIOUS     EDUCATION  IOQ 

it  abundantly."  "This  is  life  eternal,  that 
they  should  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God, 
and  Him  whom  thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus 
Christ."  With  the  Christian  conception  of 
the  character  of  God,  this  makes  the  reli- 
gious life,  just  so  far  as  it  is  developed,  at 
once  and  inevitably  ethical.  In  Christian 
thought,  then,  religious  education  and  moral 
education  cannot  be  dissociated.  The  goal 
sought  may  be  considered  to  be,  therefore, 
either  bringing  men  into  a  real  acquaintance 
with  God  —  making  this  relation  to  God  a 
real  relation  not  only,  but  the  dominating 
relation  of  life ;  or  the  attainment  of  the 
largest  life — a  life  of  character,  of  happiness 
and  of  influence.  In  either  case,  the  supreme 
conditions  and  means  are  the  same. 

For,  if  one  thinks  of  the  goal,  for  ex- 
ample, as  the  attainment  of  character,  he 
must  recognize  at  once  that  to  any  attain- 
ment of  character  self-control  is  necessary. 
But  self-control,  our  psychologists  insist,  is 
never  negative,  but  always  positive — not  mere 
self -restraint,  but  the  control  of  self  through 


IIO    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

positive  replacing  of  the  evil  tempting  con- 
siderations by  attention  to  the  other  interests 
and  considerations  that  ought  to  prevail.  The 
power  of  self-control,  then,  goes  back  to  the 
power  to  recognize,  to  appreciate  and  to  re- 
spond to  certain  great  interests  and  forces. 
The  end  of  moral  education  thus  becomes  to 
bring  the  individual,  on  the  one  hand,  into 
the  possession  of  great  and  valuable  interests ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  foster  habits  of 
persistent  response  to  those  interests.  The 
great  claim  of  religion,  and  peculiarly  of  the 
Christian  religion,  is,  that  it  offers  to  men 
the  absolutely  supreme  interests  and  is  able 
to  make  these  permanent  and  commanding 
in  life.  The  very  end  of  religious  education 
is  to  make  men  see  the  greatest  realities  and 
values — above  all  and  summing  up  all,  to 
make  men  see  Christ. 

What,  then,  are  the  chief  means  by  which 
men  are  to  be  brought  into  the  possession 
of  these  great  objective  interests  as  abiding 
and  commanding?  The  answer  of  modern 
psychology  seems  to  me  to  be  by  no  means 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION  III 

doubtful :  through  personal  association  and 
work, — character  through  contagion  and  ex- 
pression. The  prodigious  emphasis  laid  by 
Professor  Baldwin  and  Professor  Royce  upon 
imitative  activity  in  the  development  of  the 
child  is  really  an  emphasis  upon  both  per- 
sonal association  and  work.  The  great 
means  to  the  largest  life  —  to  character,  to 
happiness  and  to  influence  —  and  to  a  shar- 
ing of  the  life  of  God  as  the  greatest  of  all 
realities  and  values,  are  personal  association 
and  active  expression.  And  the  really  su- 
preme conditions  of  the  highest  association 
and  work  are  reverence  for  the  person  and 
the  mood  of  objectivity.  These  means  and 
conditions,  I  judge,  modern  psychology 
insists,  must  rule  in  all  religious  education. 

Our  problem,  then,  becomes  simply  this: 
How  can  the  religious  teacher  most  effec- 
tually use  these  great  means,  and  best  fulfil 
these  essential  conditions?  How  can  we 
bring  personal  association  and  active  expres- 
sion most  effectually  into  religious  educa- 
tion? How  can  we  best  insure  that  the 


112     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

spirit  which  pervades  it  shall  be  one  of 
sacred  respect  for  the  person  and  of  the 
mood  of  objectivity — the  mood  of  work  and 
of  a  self -forgetting  love,  rather  than  the 
mood  of  self-absorbed  introspection? 


I.    ASSOCIATION 

How  can  the  religious  teacher  make  most 
effective  the  factor  of  personal  association? 
The  very  meaning  of  that  life  of  God, 
which  men  are  to  share  in  religion,  Christ 
taught,  is  love  ;  and  it  is  consequently  a  life 
of  unselfish,  loving  service  into  which,  above 
all,  he  seeks  to  bring  men.  The  social  self 
of  the  child  must  be  awakened.  To  this 
end,  personal  association  is  self-evidently  the 
great  means. 

i.  In  the  first  place,  this  shows  that 
religious  teaching  must  clearly  recognize 
that  the  child  needs  society  as  such.  No  one 
can  learn  to  love  in  solitude.  If  really  un- 
selfish service  is  to  be  called  out,  there 
must  come  to  the  child  some  real  convic- 


RELIGIOUS     EDUCATION  1 13 

tion  of  the  essential  likeness  of  others  to 
himself,  of  the  inevitable  way  in  which  the 
lives  of  all  are  knit  together,  and  of  the 
value  and  sacredness  of  the  person  of  others. 
The  very  first  step  to  these  essential  convic- 
tions is  some  real  knowledge  of  others 
through  association  with  them.  Not  even 
the  associations  of  the  family,  it  should  be 
noted,  are  sufficient  here  to  give  the  sense 
of  what  is  due  to  a  person  simply  as  such. 
The  religious  teacher  may  well  recognize, 
therefore,  the  very  great  service  rendered 
in  just  this  respect  by  the  public  schools. 
In  this  broad  sense,  it  is  a  genuine  religious 
service — a  service  that  cannot  be  rendered 
with  anything  like  the  same  effectiveness  by 
any  select  private  school,  however  religious. 
For  in  the  public  school  the  child  meets 
those  of  all  classes,  finds  a  common  standard 
applied  to  all,  and  much  the  same  response 
made  by  all;  and  so  learns  to  think  of  him- 
self as  really  one  of  many  who  are  essen- 
tially alike.  He  must  thus  get  some  notion 
of  real  justice — of  what  is  due  to  a  person 
H 


114     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

simply  as  such.  I  am  not  able  to  see  how 
more  safely  than  in  our  public  schools  this 
absolutely  vital  contact  with  men  as  men 
could  be  afforded.  It  is  not  merely  of 
exceptional  importance  for  our  democracy, 
but  it  also  has  an  essential  contribution  to 
make  to  the  development  of  the  true  social 
self,  to  the  true  moral  and  religious  life. 
The  vital  breath  of  Christianity  is  demo- 
cratic— the  recognition  of  a  real  brotherhood 
of  men.  An  agency  that  so  completely  em- 
bodies and  teaches  the  democratic  spirit 
as  do  our  public  schools,  with  whatever 
defects,  is  in  this  broadest  sense  soundly 
religious  and  even  Christian.  Let  the  reli- 
gious teacher,  then,  recognize  the  contribu- 
tion here  of  the  common  schools,  and  abhor 
in  all  his  own  plans  the  spirit  of  snobbishness. 
2.  Let  us  notice,  in  the  second  place,  that 
the  initial  awakening  to  the  sense  that  a 
given  interest  has  value  at  all,  comes  almost 
uniformly  through  association  with  those  to 
whom  the  interest  means  most.  It  is  indeed 
through  the  discernment  that  in  character 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION  1 15 

or  peace  or  joy  another  has  what  we  have 
not,  that  we  are  led  to  give  attention  to 
those  interests  that  have  so  counted  for  this 
other  person.  This  primary  law,  which  holds 
for  all  other  values,  cannot  be  set  aside  in 
religion.  Close  association  with  a  few  simple 
people,  who  may  not  be  technically  trained 
religiously,  but  who  really  know  God,  will 
quicken  the  child's  spiritual  consciousness 
as  nothing  else  will,  and  that,  too,  without 
any  precocious  forcing.  Have  we  practically 
and  sufficiently  recognized  that  the  child 
must  be  much  in  the  society  of  truly  Christian 
people  to  find  the  great  Christian  aims 
of  growing  interest?  Is  not  the  religious 
development  of  the  child  sought  quite  too 
often  in  virtual  abandonment  of  the  associa- 
tion of  older  Christians?  Let  us  be  sure 
that  no  brilliant  pedagogical  devices  will  take 
the  place  of  these  living  forces. 

3.  But  the  child  not  only  has  his  first 
awakening  to  moral  and  religious  conscious- 
ness in  association  with  others ;  no  force  is 
so  powerful  in  bringing  him  on  into  an 


Il6     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

assured  faith  and  life  of  his  own.  The  law 
is  clear.  We  tend  to  grow  inevitably  like 
those  with  whom  we  most  constantly  are,  to 
whom  we  look  in  admiration  and  love,  and 
who  give  themselves  most  devotedly  to  us. 
Granted  such  association,  the  worst  pedagog- 
ical methods  cannot  destroy  its  reasonable 
efficiency;  and  without  such  association  the 
most  approved  methods  will  miserably  fail. 
4.  In  the  last  analysis,  the  two  greatest 
services  that  we  can  possibly  render  another 
are  really  to  be  such  persons  as  we  ought 
to  be,  and  to  bear  witness  to  those  greater 
persons  in  whom  are  the  chief  sources  of 
our  life.  The  fourth  way,  therefore,  in  which 
personal  association  may  be  made  to  count 
is  in  such  witnessing  to  the  highest  perso- 
nalities, and  in  bringing  home  to  others  in 
the  most  objective  way  possible  those  reali- 
ties and  persons  that  have  revealed  to  us 
most  of  God.  If  the  aim  of  all  religious 
education  is  to  bring  the  individual  into  his 
own  living  relation  to  God,  then  the  primary 
service  to  be  rendered  here  is  to  be  able, 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION  1 17 

on  the  one  hand,  to  bring  a  convincing 
witness  of  what  the  great  historical  self- 
manifestations  of  God,  culminating  in  Christ, 
have  meant  to  us ;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  be  able  so  to  set  these  forth  that  they 
shall  be  real  and  commanding  to  others. 
On  the  strictly  teaching  side,  therefore,  the 
power  most  to  be  coveted  by  the  religious 
teacher  is  power  to  make  real,  to  make 
rational,  and  to  make  vital  these  greatest 
facts.  This  power  culminates  in  the  power 
to  bring  home  to  others  the  real  glory  of 
the  inner  life  of  Christ.  He  who  can  do  that 
renders  to  men  the  highest  conceivable 
service,  for  he  puts  them  into  touch  with 
the  supreme  source  of  life — of  inspiration,  of 
hope,  and  of  courage.  He  makes  it  possible 
for  God  to  touch  them  with  his  own  life, 
and  with  convincing  power.  Absolute  trust 
and  humility  are  called  out  spontaneously 
by  a  real  vision  of  the  inner  spirit  of  Jesus. 
Christ  himself  built  his  kingdom  on  twelve 
men  and  their  personal  association  with  Him. 
Facing  the  whole  problem  of  character  for 


Il8     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

all  his  disciples  in  all  time,  He  deliberately 
makes  the  one  great  means  personal  relation 
to  Himself,  not  the  acceptance  of  certain 
machinery,  or  methods,  or  principles,  or 
ideas.  The  most  conserving  and  inspiring  of 
all  influences  is  love  for  a  holy  person. 

No  man  should  lose  sight  just  here  of 
the  tremendous  and  special  opportunity  given 
to  our  time  by  the  coming  of  a  historical 
spirit  into  Bible  study.  Into  this  theme  the 
present  discussion  cannot  enter;  but  I  may 
simply  record  my  conviction  that,  on  this 
account  alone,  it  is  a  reasonable  expectation 
that  the  best  religious  teaching  and  the  best 
response  to  religious  teaching  that  the  world 
has  ever  seen  lie  just  ahead  of  us.  The  his- 
torical method  is  soundly  based  psychologi- 
cally, for  it  makes,  as  no  other  can,  the 
definite  personal  appeal. 

In  trying  to  make  real  these  great  histori- 
cal manifestations  of  God,  it  may  be  worth 
remarking  that  a  special  value  is  to  be  at- 
tached, not  only  to  the  ordinary  analogical 
use  of  the  imagination  and  to  the  rarer  his- 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION  Iig 

torical  imagination,  but  particularly  to  what 
might  be  called  a  psychological  use  of  the 
imagination  —  a  clear  discernment  of  the 
mental  states  involved  in  a  historical  situa- 
tion, and  bringing  out  their  parallels  in  our 
modern  individual  and  social  life. 


II.    WORK 

The  second  great  means  which  modern 
psychology  most  emphasizes  in  religious  and 
moral  education  is  expressive  activity.  The 
psychologist  insists  that  in  mind  and  body 
we  are  made  for  action.  If  even  thought 
and  feeling  tend  to  action,  and  are  normally 
complete  only  when  the  act  follows,  much 
more  must  this  be  true  of  the  mind's  voli- 
tions and,  most  of  all,  of  the  highest  voli- 
tions—  moral  and  religious  purposes.  One 
inexorable  law  rules  throughout :  That  which 
is  not  expressed  dies. 

Since  the  very  sphere  of  the  religious  life 
is  in  the  ethical,  and  it  is  hardly  possible 
that  it  should  have  any  true  expression  at 


I2O    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

all  that  does  not  directly  involve  the  moral 
life,  we  are  not  likely  to  over-emphasize  the 
demand  for  active  expression  in  religious 
education.  How,  then,  can  this  need  of 
work,  of  expression,  best  be  met  in  reli- 
gious education? 

1.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  of  course  true, 
because  of  the  close   connection  of  the  will 
and   muscular   activity,   that   almost  any  vig- 
orous   work    is    not    without    its    value,    in 
will  -  strengthening,  for  the  religious  life. 

2.  To  aim,  further,  to   develop  a  healthy 
body,  in  the  spirit  of  fidelity  to  a  God-given 
trust,  and  because  health  is  a  vital  condition 
of   character,   is   itself   of   great   value.     And 
all   well-ordered    physical    exercise   may   be- 
come,    thus,    a     direct     help     in     religious 
education. 

3.  Moreover,  as  character  continually  in- 
volves the  working  out  of  certain  aims  and 
ideals,  the  embodying  through  work  of  any 
ideal  can  hardly  fail  to  be  a  real  assistance 
in  the  ethical  and  religious  life.    All  manual 
training,   for  example,    is   here   a  real    con- 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION  121 

tributor  to  religious  education,  as  are  also 
any  societies  that  involve  the  carrying  out 
of  some  ideal. 

4.  But,  as  the  Christian  spirit  is  preemi- 
nently the  spirit  of  unselfish  love,  and  as 
love  to  God  can  be  shown  chiefly  in  service 
to  man,  the  kind  of  expression  specially  called 
for  in  religious  education  is  active  service 
for  others.  Any  really  useful  work  here 
has  its  religious  value.  To  avoid  pride  and 
priggishness  and  introspection,  especially  in 
the  case  of  younger  children,  it  is  probably 
distinctly  better  that  this  attempted  service 
for  others  should  not  be  in  lines  that  could 
be  thought  to  be  peculiarly  religious  in  the 
narrower  sense.  The  simplest  self-forgetful 
work  for  some  practical  cause — the  cup  of 
cold  water  in  the  name  of  a  disciple — will 
meet  the  case.  It  is  not  unnatural,  therefore, 
that  societies  and  clubs  and  committees  of 
various  sorts  should  find  here  their  legiti- 
mate place  in  religious  education.  Getting 
children  thus  to  take  an  interest,  for  example, 
in  the  protection  of  animals,  in  the  protec- 


122     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN  EDUCATION 

tion  of  the  defenseless,  in  the  cleanliness 
and  beautifying  of  the  town,  in  the  cultiva- 
tion and  giving  of  flowers,  is  not  without 
its  value.  The  training  of  the  clubs  them- 
selves is,  moreover,  some  direct  preparation 
for  complex  life  in  society.. 

5.  But,  after  all,  even  though  there  are 
no  societies,  or  clubs,  or  committees  (and 
I  have  some  feeling  that  these  have  been 
overdone  by  zealous  reformers,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  something  better,  and  to  the  fostering 
of  pride  and  the  need  of  public  recognition) , 
still  the  one  great  necessity  in  the  expression 
of  the  Christian  life  remains :  the  doing,  in 
the  common  every-day  ways,  the  really  unsel- 
fish thing.  "By  this  shall  all  men  know  that 
ye  are  my  disciples,  because  ye  have  love 
one  for  another."  Are  not  teachers  some- 
times driven  to  devising  more  or  less  artificial 
ways  of  service  because  the  home  training, 
especially  in  well-to-do  homes,  is  too  often 
a  training  in  idleness  and  selfishness?  The 
best  place  of  all  for  the  child  to  express  the 
Christian  spirit  is  in  obedient,  faithful  work 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION  123 

at  home,  and  in  the  unselfish  spirit  shown 
in  the  home  relations.  To  allow  a  child  to 
grow  up  in  idleness  and  selfishness  at  home 
is  a  hideous  wrong,  that  even  the  most  scien- 
tific analysis  of  his  needs,  and  the  most  peda- 
gogic meeting  of  them  by  a  teacher,  can 
never  make  good.  A  reasonable  return  to 
the  use  of  home  "chores,"  of  which  Charles 
Dudley  Warner  writes  so  feelingly  in  his 
'Being  a  Boy,  would  be  a  very  distinct  contri- 
bution to  the  real  religious  education  of 
countless  children.  I  doubt  if  there  is  any 
greater  single  need  today,  in  religious  edu- 
cation, in  the  broad  sense,  than  the  need 
that  parents  should  take  pains  to  see  that 
children  have  some  useful  service  to  render 
daily  in  the  home,  and  learn  there  some 
thoughtful,  unselfish  consideration  of  others. 
6.  As  to  the  peculiarly  religious  expres- 
sion of  the  Christian  life  —  in  prayer,  Bible 
study,  speaking  to  others  either  privately  or 
publicly  on  religious  themes,  and  taking  part 
in  the  membership  and  activities  of  the 
Church — if  the  Christian  fellowship  has  been 


124     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

what  it  ought  to  be,  and  if  an  objective  his- 
torical method  has  been  followed  in  the 
teaching  of  the  Bible,  much  of  this,  I  believe, 
will  follow  in  time,  in  the  most  natural  and 
wholesome  way,  almost  as  a  matter  of  course. 
The  child  will  find  himself  drawn  out  toward 
God  in  some  natural  expression  of  his  own 
life  in  prayer  and  in  Bible  study.  Some  ele- 
mentary instruction  in  the  real  meaning  of 
prayer,  Bible  study,  so-called  w testimony," 
and  church  membership,  that  will  enable 
the  child  to  see  how  exactly  analogous  these 
all  are  to  what  he  does  in  other  spheres  of 
his  life,  may  greatly  help  his  sense  of  reality 
here,  and  save  him  from  formality  and  sham. 
One  caution  seems  to  me  important  as  to 
prayer.  Children's  prayers  should  be  directed 
much  more  to  the  easily  understood  demands 
of  duty,  and  less  to  mere  asking  for  things. 
And,  as  the  relation  to  God  in  Christ 
comes  to  have  some  real  meaning  to  the 
child,  some  expression  in  speech  will  tend 
to  follow.  At  first,  if  the  child's  life  is  nor- 
mal, such  expression  will  quite  certainly  be 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION  125 

along  ethical  lines,  and  may  be  thus  of  real 
value.  The  religious  life  is  primarily,  for  a 
child,  a  call  to  do  the  right  thing.  The  re- 
lation to  God,  in  its  deeper  bearing  on  the 
very  springs  of  living,  and  the  glory  of  the 
inner  life  of  Christ,  the  child  can  hardly  ap- 
preciate at  first;  and  he  should  not  be  forced 
to  any  expression  here.  That  will  come  in 
due  time.  It  is  perilous  to  crowd  children 
to  peculiarly  religious  expression  in  meetings ; 
for  expression  before  conscious  experience 
is  a  direct  training  in  dishonest  cant. 

Still  less  is  formal  doctrine  to  be  thrust 
on  the  child.  The  only  value  of  a  doctrinal 
statement  is  that  it  is  an  honest  expression 
of  a  truth  which  has  become  real  and  vital 
for  one  in  his  own  experience.  Such  state- 
ments of  doctrine  can  grow  only  .with  one's 
growing  life ;  they  cannot  be  learned  out  of 
a  book.  The  one  imperative  thing,  then,  for 
the  child,  is  to  bring  him  into  a  genuine 
religious  life  of  his  own.  Life  first,  and  then 
its  expression ;  not  the  expression  of  some- 
one else  in  order  to  life.  The  danger  of  the 


126    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

dogmatic  catechetical  method  here  is  real 
and  great.  It  is  perhaps  not  unimportant  for 
us  to  note,  too,  that  Christ's  method  in  bring- 
ing his  disciples  to  the  confession  of  his 
Messiahship,  was  one  of  punctilious  avoid- 
ance of  all  dogmatic  statements  upon  the 
matter. 

III.     THE    SPIRIT    OF    RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION 

The  true  spirit  of  religious  education  has 
been  already  implied.  The  wise  use  of  these 
greatest  means  of  personal  association  and 
expressive  activity  certainly  requires  scrupu- 
lous respect  for  the  personality  of  the  pupil, 
and  a  prevailing  mood  of  objectivity. 

i.  On  the  one  hand,  we  may  never  forget 
that  the  whole  aim  of  moral  and  religious 
education  is  to  bring  the  individual  to  a  faith 
and  life  of  his  own ;  and  this  requires  at 
every  step  the  greatest  pains  to  guard  the 
other's  own  moral  initiative.  The  very  high- 
est mark,  I  believe,  of  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious life,  is  a  deep  sense  of  the  value  and 
sacredness  of  the  individual  person.  No  one 


RELIGIOUS    EDUCATION  127 

can  be  brought  to  that  by  the  overriding 
of  his  own  personality  by  others.  I  may  not 
dwell  upon  it,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
one  absolutely  indispensable  requirement  in 
a  true  religious  education  is,  that  it  should 
be  pervaded  through  and  through  with  a 
deep  reverence  for  the  person  of  the  pupil ; 
and  this  often  has  a  decisive  bearing  upon 
methods. 

2.  On  the  other  hand,  if,  as  modern  psy- 
chology insists,  we  are  made  for  action,  and 
no  experience  is  normally  completed  until  it 
issues  in  action,  then  the  normal  mood,  it 
would  seem,  must  be  the  mood  of  activity, 
of  work,  not  of  passivity  or  brooding  —  ob- 
jectivity, not  subjectivity  or  introspection. 
All  personal  relations  and  all  work  suffer 
from  undue  preoccupation  with  our  own 
states.  Only  so  much  introspection  as  to  be 
sure  that  one  is  really  fulfilling  the  objective 
conditions  of  life,  is  either  needed  or  wise. 
We  are  to  fulfil  the  conditions,  and  count 
upon  the  results.  Here,  too,  I  may  not  stop 
for  ampler  justification  and  application  of  the 


128     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

principle,  but  can  only  declare  my  conviction 
that  the  clear  teaching  of  psychology  indicates 
that  the  prevailing  mood  in  religious  edu- 
cation must  be  one  of  objectivity,  not,  as  has 
been  perhaps  most  often  the  case,  one  of 
introspection.  This  principle  will  plainly 
affect  the  methods  used. 

In  a  word,  then,  modern  psychology  and 
pedagogy  seem  to  me  to  demand  that  re- 
ligious teachers  should  constantly  recognize 
the  complexity  of  life  and  the  unity  of  the 
nature  of  man,  that  they  should  use  as  their 
greatest  means,  personal  association  and  ex- 
pressive activity ;  and  that  they  should  per- 
meate all  their  work  with  the  spirit  of  deep 
reverence  for  the  person,  and  with  the 
prevailingly  objective  mood. 


CHRISTIAN  TRAINING  AND  THE  REVIVAL 
AS  METHODS  OF  CONVERTING  MEN: 
A  HISTORICAL  AND  PSYCHOLOGICAL 
STUDY. 

I.    THE   PRESSURE    OF    THE    QUESTION 

THE  difficulty  involved  in  our  question  is 
felt  today  by  many  of  the  most  thoughtful, 
not  only  in  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation, but  in  all  branches  of  the  Church. 
And  I  have  therefore  felt  that  I  should  make 
the  discussion  not  less  but  more  valuable  if 
I  dealt  with  it  in  its  larger  bearings,  and 
not  merely  within  the  lines  of  Association 
work.  The  question  presses  upon  every 
earnest  Christian  man.  For  men  cannot  fail 
to  see  that  in  the  history  of  the  Church  great 
numbers  have  been  added  to  its  member- 
ship in  times  of  revival.  With  whatever 
qualifications  he  may  choose  to  make,  it  is 
impossible  for  a  thoughtful,  honest  Christian 
man  to  question  the  immense  service  ren- 
dered to  mankind  by  such  movements  as 

I  ("9) 


I3O     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

those  of  Wesley,  Whitefield,  Edwards,  Fin- 
ney  and  Moody.  And  the  Christian  turns 
with  sorrow  to  the  comparatively  small 
additions  to  the  churches  made  in  recent 
years,  and  naturally  asks  if  the  trouble  be 
not  wholly  in  the  abandonment  of  revival 
methods. 

But  this  practically  general  abandonment 
of  revival  methods  is  itself  a  phenomenon 
demanding  explanation,  and  seems  to  imply 
that  conscientious  Christian  men  feel  some 
serious  difficulty  in  the  use  of  the  older 
revival  methods.  The  comparatively  small 
success  in  recent  years  of  such  efforts  in  our 
own  country,  where  they  have  been  contin- 
ued on  the  old  lines,  points  to  the  same 
explanation. 

The  thoughtful,  candid  man  finds  himself, 
therefore,  on  this  theme  drawn  in  two  direc- 
tions and  honestly  perplexed.  Can  we  wisely 
continue  the  older  revival  methods?  Are 
effective  modifications  possible  ?  What  is  the 
relation  in  which  the  revival  method  stands 
to  the  method  of  Christian  training?  Are 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          131 

they  different  methods  for  doing  the  same 
thing?  Ought  they  to  be  or  can  they  be 
mutually  exclusive  of  one  another?  Are  they 
supplementary,  one  of  the  other?  Such 
questions  as  these  are  being  seriously  asked 
by  many  in  most  of  the  churches. 

Even  in  the  most  evangelical  churches, 
then,  we  seem  to  have  to  recognize  a  chang- 
ing feeling,  whether  justified  or  not,  con- 
cerning revival  methods.  Some  have  adopted 
methods  of  education  as  consciously  and 
definitely  exclusive  of  revival  methods.  Some 
are  urging  and  defending  revival  methods, 
but  somewhat  apologetically  and  with  greater 
or  less  consciousness  of  reacting  against  a 
tendency  and  not  with  the  sure  abandon  of 
earlier  days,  and  yet  believing  that  only 
such  methods  are  adequate  to  the  end  sought. 
Some,  seeing  certain  large  results  from  both 
methods,  are  trying  to  feel  their  way  to  an 
adjustment  that  may  enable  them  to  avoid 
the  dangers  of  both,  and  to  preserve  the  best 
fruits  of  both. 

In  the  sacerdotal  churches,  on  the  other 


hand,  it  is  to  be  noted  there  has  been  some 
change  toward  something  very  like  the 
revival  method,  in  the  so-called  "retreats" 
and  "missions." 

II.   THE   CAUSES    OF  THE    CHANGED    FEELING 
CONCERNING   REVIVAL  METHODS 

Granted,  now,  that  there  is  some  real 
change  in  feeling  concerning  revivals,  even 
in  the  most  evangelical  churches,  can  we 
point  out  any  of  the  causes  that  have  brought 
it  about? 

i.  In  the  first  place,  I  think  it  can  be  said 
that  the  difficulties  felt  do  not  arise  from  the 
old  unevangelical,  or  old -school,  objections 
to  revivals.  The  misgivings  are  felt  by  those 
who  are  not  at  all  sacramentarian  in  their 
views,  and  who  believe  fully  in  man's  moral 
freedom  and  responsibility,  and  are  in  gen- 
eral of  thoroughly  evangelical  temper.  The 
present  common  misgiving  concerning  revi- 
val methods  is  due,  then,  to  something  other 
than  the  objections  which  the  earlier  revi- 
valists had  to  meet. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          133 

2.  No  doubt,  a  part  of  the  difficulty  felt 
is  due  to  a  sense  of  disappointment  in  a  care- 
ful estimate  of   the   results   of   revival  work, 
especially   in    the    last    few  years.    A   larger 
number   of   the   church   than   formerly  seem 
not  at  all  helped  but  even  estranged  by  the 
revival   effort ;    the  positive  results  seem   less 
significant,  and   the   reaction  following  more 
benumbing.   All,  of  course,  would  not  agree 
in  this  judgment  in  any  community ;  but  this 
certainly  does  not  misstate  the  belief  of  many 
honest  men,  who   are    sincerely  seeking   the 
progress  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

3.  For    many,     too,     it     can     hardly    be 
doubted,   there  is  in   ordinary  revival   meth- 
ods a  disagreeable  sense,  however  reluctantly 
confessed,  of    an    artificial    and    not    wholly 
worthy  attempt  to  work  men  up  to  a  certain 
state   of   feeling.    This   jars  upon  something 
of   the   best   in  their  own   religious   instinct, 
though   they   may   not   be   able   to   state   the 
precise  point  of  objection. 

4.  Moreover,   besides  the  opposition  that 
any   aggressive   movement    for   righteousness 


134    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

must  expect  from  all  carelessness  and  selfish- 
ness and  sin,  any  such  means  as  the  revival, 
however  justified,  must  reckon  with  the  often 
unconscious  but  very  heavy  trammel  of  the 
moderate  and  half-bored  temper  of  so-called 
"good  society,"  that  shows  an  inordinate  fear 
of  all  that  is  unconventional  and  of  all  enthu- 
siasms, and  a  better  based  and  equally  strong 
fear  of  crankiness  and  all  extremes.  Few  of 
us  probably  recognize  how  powerful  an 
inhibition  the  customary  and  conventional 
lay  upon  us.  And  the  "normal"  and  "sane" 
may  easily  come  to  mean  simply  conventional 
and  monotonous  mediocrity.  Doubtless  even 
conscientious  Christians  are  unconsciously  not 
wholly  unaffected  by  this  motive  in  the  diffi- 
culty they  feel  concerning  revival  efforts. 

But  I  cannot  think  that  the  serious  ques- 
tioning raised  concerning  revivals  is  most 
largely  due  to  any  of  the  causes  mentioned, 
or  to  mere  deadness  in  the  church.  The 
earnest  and  conscientious  are  too  evidently 
not  upon  one  side  of  this  question.  Some 
wide -working  and  deep -going  causes  have 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          135 

been  in  action  that  have  affected  practically 
the  entire  church  in  its  thought  and  feel- 
ing. Can  we  discern  those  probable  causes? 
5.  In  the  first  place,  among  the  strong 
and  deeply  underlying  reasons  both  why 
revival  effort  is  entered  upon  with  greater 
hesitancy,  and  why  when  used  it  is  often 
less  effective,  is  the  unquestionable  fact  that, 
because  of  such  an  influx  of  new  and  impor- 
tant ideas  as  was  probably  never  before 
concentered  upon  any  single  generation,  our 
age  has  been  in  peculiar  degree  a  transition  age. 
It  is  worth  while  to  remind  you  of  John 
Fiske's  forcible  words  upon  this  point:  "In 
their  mental  habits,  in  their  methods  of 
inquiry,  and  in  the  data  at  their  command, 
the  men  of  the  present  day  who  have  fully 
kept  pace  with  the  scientific  movement  are 
separated  from  the  men  whose  education 
ended  in  1830  by  an  immeasurably  wider 
gulf  than  has  ever  before  divided  one  pro- 
gressive generation  of  men  from  their  prede- 
cessors."1 Our  points  of  view,  our  modes 

1  Tht  Idea.  •/  God,  pp.  56,  57. 


136    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN  EDUCATION 

of  conception,  our  favorite  analogies,  our 
methods  of  argument,  our  very  language, 
have  all  been  inevitably  affected.  To  keep, 
now,  the  same  great  Christian  truths  real 
to  ourselves,  and  to  be  able  to  make  them 
real  to  others,  we  must  have  some  degree 
of  restatement.  Questions,  too,  often  very 
far-reaching,  have  been  inevitably  raised  by 
the  new  ideas  for  great  multitudes  of  minds. 
Now,  invective  and  condemnation  do  not 
answer  questions,  nor  does  mere  dogmatic 
repetition  of  old  forms  of  statement.  "The 
wounds  of  knowledge,"  said  Julius  Muller 
profoundly,  "can  be  healed  only  by  knowl- 
edge." Of  course,  men  have  been  affected 
by  these  new  ideas  in  greatly  differing  de- 
gree; but  in  most  intelligent  communities 
the  period  of  the  recent  years  in  religious 
thought  has  been  distinctly  one  of  more  or 
less  conscious  questioning,  and  of  the  felt 
need  of  transition  from  older  to  newer  state- 
ments of  the  great  Christian  truths.  This 
simply  means  that,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
many  lines  of  progress  outside  of  religion 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          137 

concentered  upon  this  age,  and  so  gave  to 
this  generation  in  religion  preeminently  the 
task  of  facing  and  solving  the  problems  of 
a  transition  age,  with  the  involved  effective 
restating  of  the  great  Christian  truths.  This 
is  no  mean  task,  and  it  may  ultimately  mean 
as  much  for  the  life  and  growth  of  the  church 
as  the  immediate  addition  of  great  numbers 
to  its  membership. 

We  may  not  proudly  assume  that  we  have 
already  made  an  exhaustive  study  of  the 
hearts  of  men,  or  that  we  have  already  pene- 
trated the  full  meaning  of  the  Gospel  and 
mastered  beyond  improvement  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  and  so  reached  the  ideal  statement 
of  the  Gospel  for  all  time,  even  supposing 
that  to  be  ever  possible.  Are  we  quite  sure 
that  this  profound  satisfaction  with  exactly 
the  old  forms  of  statement  does  not  mean  a 
degree  of  unteachableness  concerning  the 
present  teaching  of  the  Spirit?  Ought  we 
not  to  hope  for  and  to  expect  increasing 
grasp  of  Christian  truth,  and  increasing 
power  in  putting  it?  And,  if  this  is  the 


138     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

peculiar  providential  task  of  our  time,  let 
us  not  underrate  it,  and  let  us  not  shirk  it, 
and,  above  all,  let  us  not  decry  it.  Our  gen- 
eration needs  to  give  special  and  solemn 
heed  to  these  deep  sentences  of  Fairbairn, 
if  we  are  really  to  meet  the  duty  God  lays 
upon  us:  "The  Church,  so  long  as  it  believes 
in  the  divinity  of  its  Founder,  is  bound  to 
have  a  history  which  shall  consist  of  succes- 
sive and  progressively  successful  attempts  to 
return  to  Him.  He  can  never  be  transcended  ; 
all  it  can  ever  be  is  contained  in  Him;  but 
its  ability  to  interpret  Him  and  realize  his 
religion  ought  to  be  a  developing  ability."1 

But  such  a  period  of  transition  and  such 
a  task  of  restatement  necessarily  preclude 
quite  the  same  results  in  evangelistic  efforts. 
For,  in  the  first  place,  the  preachers  are 
feeling  their  way  only  gradually  into  the  most 
effective  modes  of  putting  the  truth  in  this 
new  generation.  And,  in  the  second  place, 
the  inevitable  questionings  of  the  hearers 
prevent  an  easy  and  positive  assent  to  the 

lTht  Place  of  Christ  in  Modern  Theology,  p.  152. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          1 39 

truth.  This  is  especially  the  case  in  revival 
work,  since  it  has  very  commonly  gone  for- 
ward, in  much  of  its  preaching  and  method, 
upon  presuppositions  now  called  in  question 
by  many.  Now,  though  every  bit  of  the 
preaching  were  true,  and  every  piece  of  the 
method  were  fully  justified  in  the  abstract, 
this  psychological  state  of  mind  of  the  hearers 
would  be  certain  to  affect  the  result.  If  the 
questioning  and  feeling  of  transition  existed 
only  in  sporadic  cases,  they  might  leave  re- 
vival effort  comparatively  unaffected ;  but 
touching,  as  they  do,  a  large  proportion  of 
the  most  thoughtful  and  influential  in  the 
church,  the  fundamental  conditions  of  revi- 
val work  are  strikingly  changed.  The  fact, 
then,  that  this  is,  in  the  most  marked  degree, 
a  transition  age,  at  least  for  very  many  of  the 
most  thoughtful  in  the  church,  is  one  of  the 
greatest  reasons  for  the  difficulty  felt  con- 
cerning revival  methods,  as  well  as  for  the 
comparatively  small  accessions  to  the  mem- 
bership of  the  church  in  the  recent  years. 
Even  our  best  revivalists  have  very  com- 


I4O    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

monly  recognized  something  like  this  in 
their  sense  of  the  need  of  giving  themselves 
in  late  years  more  especially  to  the  building 
up  of  the  life  of  Christians  rather  than  to 
the  bringing  of  larger  numbers  into  the 
Christian  life. 

6.  But  some  of  the  very  ideas,  the  coming 
in  of  which  has  made  this  a  peculiarly  transi- 
tion age,  have  tended  directly  to  affect  our 
feeling  concerning  revival  methods.  As  a 
scientific  age  we  have  been  studying,  as  no 
preceding  age  has  ever  studied,  God's 
method  of  working  in  the  external  world, 
and  we  have  become  deeply  impressed  with 
the  way  in  which  law  and  growth  prevail  in 
the  divine  method.  Now,  this  is  well-nigh 
revolutionary  of  much  of  our  religious  think- 
ing and  feeling.  It  simply  means  that,  almost 
unconsciously  to  ourselves,  we  have,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent,  changed  our  view  of  what 
constitutes  the  characteristic  marks  of  the  divine 
working.  Whereas,  earlier,  it  was  exactly  the 
sudden,  the  unaccountable,  the  lawless,  that 
seemed  to  us  most  surely  assignable  to  the 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THB    REVIVAL          141 

Divine ;  now,  under  the  influence  of  the 
strong  conviction  of  the  prevalence  of  law 
and  of  growth  in  all  God's  working,  we  have 
come  to  fear,  in  all  sudden,  mysterious, 
tumultuous  experiences,  the  presence  of  the 
magical  and  superstitious  in  religion,  and  to 
fear  all  lawless  upheavals  as  abnormal  and 
unhelpful  to  the  real  goal  of  life.  This  great 
change  in  point  of  view  makes  us  estimate 
the  most  striking  phenomena  of  a  revival 
very  differently  than  our  fathers  estimated 
them.  At  the  best,  permeated,  as  we  cannot 
help  being,  if  we  have  been  awake  at  all  to 
the  great  scientific  movements  of  our  time — 
permeated  with  these  ideas  of  law  and  of 
growth,  we  are  forced  to  raise  serious  ques- 
tions concerning  the  meaning  and  value  of 
the  revival  method.  This  is  not  the  result 
of  any  premeditated  wilfulness  in  religious 
matters ;  it  is  rather  simply  an  inevitable 
change  in  point  of  view  that  in  most  cases, 
probably,  has  taken  place  almost  uncon- 
sciously and  even  against  their  own  desire. 
The  persistent  influence  of  the  ideas  of 


142     PERSONAL  AND    IDEAL   ELEMENTS    IN   EDUCATION 

law  and  of  growth,  then,  is  another  strong 
cause  of  the  change  in  feeling  concerning 
revival  methods,  though  we  may  later  find 
that  this  change  is  not  wholly  justified. 

7.  Furthermore,  for  various   reasons,  into 
which  I   need   not  here  go,  there  has  come 
into  all  the  churches  a  much  more  ethical  con- 
ception   of    Christianity,    that    tends    to    make 
much  less  of  emotional  "frames  of  mind"  and 
looks    everywhere    mainly    to    fruit    in   life. 
This   temper   of   mind   necessarily  sets  small 
store   by   great   experiences   simply  as   such; 
and   it    is,    perhaps,    likely   sometimes   short- 
sightedly to  undervalue  them  even  as  means. 
The   trend    toward    this    thoroughly   ethical 
conception    of    religion    has    been,    on    the 
whole,    undoubtedly    most    wholesome;    but 
it  has,  quite  as  certainly,  naturally  tended  to 
count   less   important    than    the   earlier   con- 
ception, the  marked   experiences  of  revivals. 

8.  Once  more,  the  so-called  "voluntaristic 
trend"  in  modern  psychology,  the  vast  devel- 
opment  in   the   line   of   organization   in   our 
time,    and,   in   general,   what   has   been   well 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          143 

called  our  "stupendous  reliance  upon  ma- 
chinery"— all  tend,  no  doubt,  to  lay  emphasis 
upon  external  action,  organization  and  product, 
rather  than  upon  any  inner  state ;  and  just 
so  far  tend  to  make  seem  less  important  to 
us  the  revival's  plain  aim  to  deepen  the  inner 
religious  life.  Rightly  impatient  of  a  selfish, 
sentimental  and  benumbing  occupation  with 
one's  own  states  of  mind,  rightly  insistent 
that  feeling  or  meditation  that  is  to  mean 
anything  to  us  or  to  men  must  be  put  into 
act,  the  trend  of  which  we  are  here  speaking, 
which  is  powerfully  at  work  upon  us  all, 
no  doubt  tends  to  raise  serious  questions 
concerning  the  value  of  the  revival — ques- 
tions in  part  justified,  in  part  not  justified. 

These,  then,  seem  to  me  to  be  among  the 
most  important  causes  of  the  changed  feel- 
ing concerning  revivals  that  has  passed  over 
the  evangelical  churches:  the  fact  that  this 
is,  in  peculiar  degree,  a  transitional  and  ques- 
tioning period ;  the  powerful  influence  of 
the  ideas  of  law  and  of  growth ;  the  increas- 
ingly ethical  conception  of  Christianity ;  and 


144    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

the  immense  emphasis  of  our  time  upon 
action.  It  is  probably  possible  for  a  wise 
evangelism  to  give  due  weight  to  all  these 
considerations. 

III.    OUR    PROBLEM 

Our  title  implies  the  recognition  of  the 
need  of  conversion,  of  bringing  all  men  into 
some  really  new  life.  It  assumes  that  both 
the  methods  of  religious  training  and  the 
methods  of  the  revival  look  to  essentially  the 
same  goal — the  bringing  about  of  the  con- 
verted state,  and  of  the  development  of  that 
state.  And  it  asks  us  to  compare  the  methods 
as  to  their  value  in  bringing  about  conversion. 

Now,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  psy- 
chological process,  James  defines  conversion 
to  be  "the  process,  gradual  or  sudden,  by 
which  a  self  hitherto  divided,  and  consciously 
wrong,  inferior  and  unhappy,  becomes  uni- 
fied and  consciously  right,  superior  and 
happy,  in  consequence  of  its  firmer  hold 
upon  religious  realities."1  I  think  we  may 

1  The  Varittiet  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  189. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          145 

well  accept  this  as  an  essentially  correct 
definition  of  the  psychological  process  in- 
volved, where  the  change  has  taken  place 
in  practically  adult  life.  And  from  this  point 
of  view  we  should  be  led  to  compare  Chris- 
tian training  and  the  revival  as  to  their 
power  to  give  men  firmer  hold  upon  the 
"religious  realities,"  so  as  to  bring  them 
some  consciousness  of  unity,  Tightness,  con- 
quest and  joy.  No  doubt,  this  definition,  as 
an  induction  from  many  striking  cases  of 
conversion,  will  be,  if  there  is  any  differ- 
ence, rather  favorable  than  otherwise  to  the 
method  of  the  revival. 

From  the  definitely  Christian  view  of  the 
goal  of  the  religious  life,  we  should  probably 
prefer  to  say  that  the  end  of  all  religious  effort 
for  men  must  be  to  bring  them  into  actual 
communion  with  the  living  God  in  Christ — 
into  sharing  his  character  and  joy.  That  is  a 
tremendous  goal.  We  can  well  afford  to  lay 
aside  all  prejudice  and  to  give  willing  heed 
to  anything  that  will  make  the  attainment  of 
that  goal  more  certain.  Here  a  comparison 
j 


146     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

of  the  methods  of  Christian  training  and  of 
the  revival  leads  us  to  ask :  How  can  a  man 
come  most  certainly  into  an  actual  sharing 
of  the  life  of  God?  How  can  that  life  in 
relation  to  God  be  made  to  him  most  real, 
most  rational,  most  vital? 


IV.    OPPOSING    SOLUTIONS 

Many,  now,  feel  that  only  through  the 
essential  methods  of  the  revival  can  real 
conversion  ever  be  obtained.  They  lay  em- 
phasis on  the  fact  that  the  change  must  be 
wrought  by  God,  and  so  demand  an  experi- 
ence that  seems  to  come  from  something 
plainly  beyond  the  man  himself.  Where  such 
an  experience  is  wanting,  they  feel  that  they 
must  deny  the  presence  of  the  divine  life  in 
the  soul.  To  such  it  is  likely  to  seem  im- 
possible that  any  training  or  educational 
process  could  take  the  place  of  such  an 
experience  as  a  revival  may  give.  They 
would  say  with  Herrmann,  "The  certainty 
of  God  is  not  the  product  of  human 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          147 

strivings";  and  that  would  seem  to  them  to 
mean  the  necessity  of  some  marked,  prob- 
ably sudden,  experience.  To  depend  wholly 
upon  an  educational  process  seems  to  them 
to  leave  out  the  vital  divine  element  alto- 
gether. 

Others,  just  as  earnest  in  their  desire  to 
build  up  the  Kingdom  of  God,  are,  for  one 
reason  or  another,  afraid  of  all  methods  that 
look  to  the  production  of  such  marked 
experiences.  They  feel  that  at  best  such 
experiences  involve  great  dangers  of  various 
kinds ;  and  that  the  insistence  upon  such 
methods  as  indispensable  is  a  virtual  denial 
of  God  in  the  larger  part  of  life ;  and  they, 
consequently,  would  use  only  educational 
processes — the  method  of  careful,  prayerful, 
all-round  scientific  Christian  training — con- 
forming the  whole  man,  body  and  mind, 
more  and  more  to  the  Christian  ideal.  Such 
lay  emphasis  upon  the  fact  that,  however 
marked  the  religious  experience  that  comes 
to  a  man,  if  it  is  to  be  of  any  real  value  to 
him  he  must  put  it  patiently,  steadily  into 


148     PERSONAL  AND    IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

act.  He  must  go  down  from  his  mount  of 
vision  to  make  all  things  according  to  the 
pattern  shown  him  in  the  mount.  That  is, 
they  would  say,  the  steady  conforming  of 
the  man  to  the  Christian  ideal  is  the  real 
goal  in  any  case ;  and,  if  that  is  done,  the 
experience  is,  at  least,  unnecessary;  and,  con- 
sidering the  attendant  dangers,  had  better 
not  be  sought. 

V.    TEMPERAMENTAL   DIFFERENCES 

Now,  in  comparing  these  two  views  and 
methods,  one  can  hardly  avoid  being  influ- 
enced by  his  own  predominant  type  of  expe- 
rience. Almost  inevitably  we  are  all  likely  to 
make  our  own  experience  the  norm,  and  to 
conclude  that  the  precise  way  in  which  we 
have  been  led  into  our  best  life  and  vision  of 
God  is  the  way  in  which  every  one  should 
travel.  We  are  all  liable  to  a  good  deal  of 
intolerance  here;  and  all  the  more  liable, 
because  the  interests  at  stake  seem  to  us  so 
great. 

i.   Illustrated    in    Other    Spheres. —  It    may 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          149 

help  us  to  charity  and  patience  with  one 
another  here,  to  remind  ourselves  that 
one  of  the  things  that  modern  psychology 
has  been  making  most  clear  is  that,  along 
with  great  likeness  in  the  fundamental  char- 
acteristics, men  differ  very  greatly  in  many 
temperamental  qualities ;  and  that  these  differ- 
ences affect  very  much  the  direction  and 
color  of  their  mental  life,  their  predominant 
temptations,  their  particular  needs.  In  minor 
matters,  perhaps,  most  of  us  understand  this 
well  and  act  upon  the  knowledge.  We  under- 
stand that,  for  successful  living,  we  need  to 
know  ourselves.  As  to  our  bodies  we  have 
come  to  see,  according  to  the  proverb,  that 
"what  is  one  man's  meat  is  another's  poison." 
But  men  have  been  much  less  quick  to  see 
that  no  single  prescription  of  some  particular 
mental  process  could  be  a  universal  panacea. 
For  example,  some  men  are  predominantly 
intellectual  in  their  temper;  some  predom- 
inantly emotional ;  and  some  predominantly 
volitional.  It  takes  little  thought  to  see 
that  the  prevailing  temptations  of  these 


150    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

men  will  be  quite  different.  The  first  is 
tempted  to  hard,  cold  dogmatism ;  the  second 
to  simple  sentimentalism ;  and  the  third  to 
pure  obstinacy.  And  any  precise  counsel,  that 
would  meet  the  need  of  one,  would  be  quite 
beside  the  mark  and  might  even  prove 
injurious  with  the  others. 

So,  again,  men  differ  greatly  in  their 
natural  estimate  of  themselves.  Some,  of 
course,  habitually  overestimate  themselves; 
but  others,  just  as  clearly,  are  persistently 
self -depreciative.  An  experience  that  would 
help  one  of  these  classes  would  be  likely  to 
be  distinctly  harmful  to  the  other. 

Once  more,  men  differ  greatly  as  to  kind 
of  memory.  To  take  a  single  illustration, 
bearing  directly  upon  the  moral  and  spiritual 
life.  Some  men  have  what  might  be  called 
an  Indian  memory:  they  have  a  very  vivid 
remembrance  of  all  the  ills  and  injuries  of 
their  lives ;  these  things  they  seem  unable  to 
forget.  For  the  good  things  of  their  experi- 
ence, on  the  other  hand,  their  memory  is 
correspondingly  bad.  Other  men  exactly 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          151 

reverse  this  condition,  and  show  a  most 
retentive  memory  for  the  pleasant  and  suc- 
cessful experiences  of  life,  and  but  the  slightest 
memory  of  failures  and  injuries.  How  diver- 
gent are  the  weaknesses  and  temptations  of 
these  two  classes !  how  different  a  matter,  for 
example,  is  the  duty  of  forgiveness  for  the 
two ! 

Perhaps  these  illustrations  of  mental  dif- 
ferences may  suffice  to  show  that,  particularly 
in  all  that  concerns  vital  interests,  we  cannot 
afford  to  ignore  or  forget  the  mental  dif- 
ferences of  men,  and  that  we  may  well  be 
particularly  patient  with  one  another  in  con- 
sidering the  varieties  of  religious  experience. 

And  when  we  turn  to  the  marked  dif- 
ferences in  religious  experiences,  we  may 
be,  perhaps,  still  further  helped  by  recalling 
that  we  have  probably  all  had  some  experi- 
ence in  common  life  of  the  fact  that  there 
are  two  ways  in  which  we  may  come  into  the 
appreciation  of  any  great  interest  or  value:  (i) 
we  may  be  surprised  into  it,  and  then  choose 
it  for  its  own  sake,  though  we  should  not 


152    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

have  chosen  it  before ;  or,  (2)  in  trust  in  the 
testimony  of  others,  we  may  go  ahead  and 
of  deliberate  purpose  venture  all  in  the  faith 
that  the  value  shall  be  ours.  Probably  most 
of  us  take  habitually  one  of  these  ways  in 
most  things  of  value ;  but,  perhaps,  none  of 
us  are  entirely  without  some  experience  in 
both  ways,  that  may  give  us  the  key  to  under- 
stand the  most  marked  differences  in  religious 
experiences. 

For  example,  probably  most  of  us  were 
rather  surprised  into  our  experience  of  the 
joy  of  a  really  unselfish  love.  We  waked  up 
with  a  kind  of  start  to  the  fact  that  we  really 
did  love  some  one  unselfishly,  and  that  it 
was  a  great  joy.  Then  we  could  choose  such 
a  love  for  its  own  sake,  though  from  the 
previous  selfish  point  of  view  it  would  have 
been  impossible  for  us  to  conceive  how  an 
unselfish  love  could  bring  joy. 

But,  occasionally,  a  man,  say  under  some 
great  bereavement  or  loss,  quite  benumbed 
in  his  relations  to  others  and  almost  dis- 
tracted, may  say  to  himself  in  cold  blood:  "I 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          153 

simply  must  throw  myself  into  some  unselfish 
work  for  others ;  I  know,  either  from  my 
own  previous  experience  or  through  the  testi- 
mony of  others  whom  I  cannot  doubt,  that 
I  shall  find  in  such  service  new  life  and  joy." 
And  without  feeling  and  without  any  im- 
mediate experience  he  goes  steadily  forward, 
to  find  in  the  end  his  bold  voluntary  venture 
justified,  and  unselfish  love  proving  a  joy. 

The  final  experience  is  much  the  same  in 
both  cases,  but  the  way  to  it  quite  dif- 
ferent. In  one  case  the  whole  experience 
seems  like  a  sudden  out-and-out  gift  from 
something  outside  the  individual's  own  life ; 
in  the  other  case  it  seems  like  the  plain 
reward  of  a  hard-won  battle  of  his  own. 

So,  too,  in  the  matter  of  the  value  of  a 
college  course,  there  are  those  who,  in  some 
previous  study  or  experience,  have  waked 
up  to  warm  appreciation  of  the  value  of  a 
college  course  and  choose  it,  from  the  start, 
in  the  light  of  such  an  experience,  heartily 
and  gladly  for  its  own  sake.  But  many  seem 
unable  to  get  any  such  previous  vision  that 


154    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

makes  the  value  of  the  course  seem  real. 
They  enter  upon  their  college  study  some- 
what doggedly,  even  if  in  good  spirit,  relying 
upon  the  testimony  of  parents  and  teachers 
and  college  men,  that  they  will  find  that  the 
course  will  richly  repay  them.  They  have  to 
go  forward  in  faith,  with  set  will.  And  some 
come  only  very  gradually,  in  later  life,  to 
any  real  appreciation  of  what  the  college 
course  meant  to  them.  These  two  classes  of 
cases  came  into  their  first  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  a  college  course  in  very  different 
ways. 

Or,  to  take  one  more  example,  sometimes 
we  come  upon  an  idea  in  our  reading  that 
we  recognize  at  once  is  most  important,  per- 
haps revolutionary  for  us,  the  momentous 
bearing  of  which  upon  our  previous  think- 
ing stands  out  immediately  as  in  vision ;  and 
we  mark  the  day  of  its  discovery  as  a  day  of 
crisis  in  our  intellectual  life.  But  our  expe- 
rience may  be  quite  different.  We  note  the 
idea  as,  indeed,  of  passing  interest,  but  seem 
little  touched  by  it.  But  little  by  little  we 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          155 

find  ourselves  continually  recurring  to  it, 
until  it  forces  itself  finally  upon  our  attention 
as  a  master-idea  in  our  thinking.  A  little 
experience  in  newspaper-clipping  would  per- 
haps suffice  to  convince  a  man  of  these  dif- 
ferent ways  in  which  ideas  strike  him.  How 
often  we  painfully  clip  and  file  the  thing  we 
never  use,  and  leave  all  undipped  the  thing 
we  discover  later  we  wanted  most  of  all. 

Why  is  there  this  difference  in  the  appre- 
ciation of  ideas  ?  Why  is  the  significance  of 
one  idea  appreciated  at  once,  and  of  another 
only  very  gradually?  The  answer  seems  to 
be  that  the  preparation  for  the  appreciation 
of  one  idea  has  been  going  on  for  some  time 
quite  unconsciously ;  when  the  idea  appeared, 
you  were  ready  for  it ;  its  full  significance 
was  manifest  at  once.  It  served  to  complete 
the  little  that  was  lacking  in  the  electric 
circuit,  and  the  light  appeared  forthwith.  In 
the  case  of  the  other  idea  there  was  no  such 
adequate  previous  preparation,  and  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  idea  for  our  thinking  could 
not  be  immediately  discerned.  Here  we  had, 


156     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

gradually  and  with  more  or  less  conscious- 
ness, to  work  out  our  fuller  preparation  for 
an  appreciation  of  the  idea ;  it  grew  upon  us 
somewhat  steadily,  until  we  came  to  see  how 
commanding  a  place  it  really  held  in  our 
thinking.  In  both  cases  the  discernment  of 
the  full  significance  of  the  idea  for  our  life 
required  preparation;  in  the  one  case  that 
preparation  had  been  made  beforehand  un- 
consciously; in  the  other  case,  in  consid- 
erable part,  it  had  to  be  made  afterward 
and  much  more  consciously.  But  it  should 
be  noted  that  in  either  way  an  idea  may 
become  for  a  man  absolutely  commanding. 
Its  significance  for  his  life  does  not  depend 
upon  the  way  in  which  he  reaches  it.  His 
habitual  way  of  coming  to  his  ideas  is  likely 
to  depend  upon  his  temperament,  though 
the  same  man  may  use  different  ways  in 
different  cases. 

2.  Temperamental  'Differences  in  Religion. — 
From  these  illustrations,  now,  of  the  two 
different  ways  in  which  men  seem  to  come 
into  the  appreciation  of  great  interests  and 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          157 

values,  let  us  turn  directly  to  note  the  differ- 
ences in  the  religious  experience  itself.  Our 
illustrations  may  help  us  to  recognize  the 
same  two  ways  in  conversion. 

Thus  James  says:1  "There  is  thus  a  con- 
scious and  voluntary  way  and  an  involuntary 
and  unconscious  way  in  which  mental  results 
may  get  accomplished ;  and  we  find  both 
ways  exemplified  in  the  history  of  conversion, 
giving  us  two  types,  which  Starbuck  calls 
the  volitional  type  and  the  type  by  self-surrender 
respectively.  In  the  volitional  type  the  regen- 
erative change  is  usually  gradual,  and  con- 
sists in  the  building  up,  piece  by  piece,  of  a 
new  set  of  moral  and  spiritual  habits."2  In 
the  self-surrender  type  the  change  seems  sud- 
den, and  the  effects  in  life  immediate. 

It  seems  also  wholly  probable,  as  in  our 
previous  illustrations,  that  the  differences  in 
the  method  of  conversion  are  primarily  due 

'In  this  part  of  the  discussion,  I  use  freely  James'  The  Varieties 
of  Religious  Experience,  because  it  is  the  fullest  inductive  study  we 
have  of  religious  phenomena,  and  is  made  with  great  psychological 
insight. 

*Op,  «'/.,  p.  206. 


158     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN  EDUCATION 

to  psychological  differences  in  men.  As 
James  says  again,  we  are  led  "to  suspect  that 
what  makes  the  difference  between  a  sudden 
and  a  gradual  convert  is  not  necessarily  the 
presence  of  divine  miracle  in  the  case  of 
one  and  something  less  divine  in  that  of  the 
other,  but  rather  a  simple  psychological  pecu- 
liarity, the  fact,  namely,  that  in  the  recipient 
of  the  more  instantaneous  grace  we  have  one 
of  those  Subjects  who  are  in  possession  of 
a  large  region  in  which  mental  work  can 
go  on  subliminally,  and  from  which  invasive 
experiences,  abruptly  upsetting  the  equi- 
librium of  the  primary  consciousness,  may 
come."1 

And  this  psychological  explanation  may 
well  bring  real  relief  to  many  a  conscientious 
Christian  worker  in  revival  seasons,  who  has 
seen  expected  marked  experiences  come  to 
one,  and  not  come  to  another  who  had 
manifestly  met  with  equal  completeness  all 
the  moral  conditions.  If  we  will  speak 
with  entire  frankness,  is  it  not  simply  true 

lOp.  cit.,  p.  237. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          159 

that,  in  more  than  one  such  case,  where  the 
expected  experience  did  not  come,  we  have 
simply  not  been  able  honestly  to  convince 
ourselves  that  the  difficulty  was  a  moral  one  ? 
We  may  not  wisely  shut  our  eyes  to  the 
plain  fact  that,  where  marked  experiences  are 
insisted  upon  as  indispensable,  while,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  revival  is  the  scene  of  many 
joyful  and  delivering  experiences,  it  is,  also, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  scene  of  painful 
despairing  disappointments.  Given  equal 
honesty  of  moral  purpose  in  surrender  to 
God,  and  the  only  natural  explanation  of 
these  facts  is  to  be  found  in  psychological 
differences. 

I  do  not  see  that  religion  need  to  shrink 
at  all  from  this  conclusion.  For,  as  in  our 
previous  illustrations,  we  have  good  reason 
to  believe  that  the  different  ways  of  reaching 
the  result  do  not  affect  the  value  of  the  result. 

And  the  two  methods  of  conversion — the 
sudden  and  the  gradual — are  not,  after  all, 
so  far  apart.  Intelligent  revivalism  might  be 
called  a  hastened  evolutionary  process.  And 


l6o     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

the  method  of  Christian  training  only  intro- 
duces more  gradually  much  the  same  motives 
that  an  intelligent  revivalism  employs.  Both 
methods  seek  to  produce  a  change  in  the 
man.  Both  have  much  the  same  ultimate 
ideal  of  life.  Both  need  some  preparation, 
conscious  or  unconscious.  In  neither  is  the 
process  absolutely  continuous.  In  neither  is 
the  process  absolutely  sudden.  For,  as  James 
says,  "even  in  the  most  voluntarily  built  up 
sort  of  regeneration  there  are  passages  of 
partial  self-surrender  interposed."1  Or,  as  it 
may  be  put,  "there  are  always  critical  points 
here  at  which  the  movement  forward  seems 
much  more  rapid."  So,  "our  education  in 
any  practical  accomplishment  proceeds  appar- 
ently by  jerks  and  starts,  just  as  the  growth 
of  our  physical  bodies  does."2 

That  is,  the  most  normal  and  gradual 
growth  has  its  crises  large  or  small,  its 
moments  of  special  insight,  its  sober  and 
strenuous  moods,  the  birth -times  of  great 
convictions  and  decisions.  No  growth,  ap- 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  208.  *  Of.  cit.,  p.  206. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          l6l 

parently,  proceeds  at  a  perfectly  uniform  rate. 
The  opposition  to  critical  moments  may,  thus, 
become  quite  chimerical — an  opposition  that 
that  is  at  war  with  all  the  facts.  And  the  most 
sudden  and  dazzling  moments  of  insight,  on 
the  other  hand,  have  really  had  long  prepara- 
tion, and  require  preceding  and  succeeding 
experience  to  bring  out  their  full  meaning; 
and  their  real  value  can  be  tested  only  in 
life.  The  two  methods  of  conversion,  then, 
we  may  well  believe,  are  neither  psychologi- 
cally nor  logically  absolutely  disparate ;  they 
are  simply  methods,  probably,  that  fit  two 
different  types  of  mind.  And  from  this  point 
of  view,  as  James  suggests,  the  contrasts 
between  these  types  of  mind  "cease  to  be 
the  radical  antagonisms  which  many  think 
them."  "The  final  consciousness  which  each 
type  reaches  of  union  with  the  divine  has 
the  same  practical  significance  for  the  indi- 
vidual; and  individuals  may  well  be  allowed 
to  get  it  by  the  channels  which  are  most  open 
to  their  several  temperaments."1 

lOp.  «'/.,  p.  488. 
K 


1 62    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN  EDUCATION 

VI.    IS    SUDDENNESS   A    SURE  MARK  OF  THE 
DIVINE   WORKING? 

I.  Why  Suddenness  is  not  to  be  Emphasized. 
— The  only  objection  which  can  well  be 
made  to  this  conclusion  is  the  reiterated  claim 
that  only  the  sudden  experiences  by  reason 
of  their  very  suddenness  bear  the  mark  of 
the  divine.  And  we  may  well  face  still  more 
explicitly  this  objection.  James  puts  the 
question  very  clearly:  "Is  an  instantaneous 
conversion  a  miracle  in  which  God  is  present 
as  He  is  present  in  no  change  of  heart  less 
strikingly  abrupt?  Are  there  two  classes  of 
human  beings,  even  among  the  apparently 
regenerate,  of  which  the  one  class  really 
partakes  of  Christ's  nature  while  the  other 
merely  seems  to  do  so?"1 

(i)  Now,  in  the  first  place,  it  is  to  be 
noted,  as  we  have  just  seen,  that  the  two 
methods  or  classes  of  conversion  cannot  be 
absolutely  separated  from  each  other  even 
in  this  matter  of  suddenness.  The  most 

1  Op.  «'/.,  p.  230. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          163 

gradual    conversion   has  its  marked   and   sig- 
nificant crises. 

(2)  In  the  second  place,  if  the  compara- 
tively greater  suddenness  of  the  one  class  of 
experiences  is  due  to  temperamental   differ- 
ences in  men,  as  we  have  seen  that  psycho- 
logical study  has  made  probable,  it  is  difficult 
to  count  the  suddenness  as  such  more  a  mark 
of    the    divine    working     than    the     gradual 
change.    Thus,   for   example,    the    results   of 
Professor    Coe's    inquiries,    Professor   James 
believes,    "strikingly    confirm    the   view   that 
sudden    conversion    is    connected    with    the 
possession  of  an  active  subliminal  self."1 

(3)  In  the  third  place,  no  truly  religious 
man   who    believes    that   God    is   creator   of 
him — body  and   mind — can  doubt   that   God 
makes  a  most  significant  revelation  of   Him- 
self  in  the  very  laws  of   man's   being.    And 
certainly   no    genuinely    Christian   man,  who 
believes   Christ's  teaching   and   revelation  of 
God    as    the    seeking     Father,    can    call    in 
question  God's  continuous  working  with  us. 

lOp.  cit.,  p.  240. 


164     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

(4)  Moreover,   we    may   not    forget    that 
to   so   exclusively   emphasize    the    divineness 
of   the   sudden   is   a  virtual   denial   of   God's 
presence  in  the  rest  of  life,  that  is  ultimately 
really   irreligious   in   its   tendency ;    for   such 
exclusive    emphasis     seems    tacitly   to    imply 
that   God   is   at   work   only   at   the   points   so 
emphasized. 

(5)  And,    once    more,    religion,    like   any 
ideal   view,    is   never   primarily  interested   in 
the     mechanism     of     the     process,    whether 
gradual   or   sudden — but   in   the   significance 
of  the  process.    Its  question  is  never,   How 
did  the  thing  come  to  be  ?  but,  What  does  it 
mean?  What  is  its  end?    The  change  itself 
is  the  vital  and  the  significant  thing ;  it  must 
be  the  witness  of  the  divineness  of  the  work. 

2.  The  True  Tests  of  Religious  Experience. — 
In  other  words,  we  can  never  safely  set  up 
certain  external  or  psychological  tests  of  the 
divine  life  in  man.  We  can  only  make  our 
appeal  to  Christ's  test — "By  their  fruits  ye 
shall  know  them."  The  only  certain  evidence 
of  God's  presence  in  the  life  of  a  man  is  to 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          1 65 

be  seen  in  his  spirit  and  conduct.  "By  this 
shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples, 
if  ye  have  love  one  for  another."  "The  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering, 
kindness,  goodness,  faithfulness,  meekness, 
temperance." 

Or,  to  state  the  matter  in  more  philosoph- 
ical terms,  we  may  say,  with  James,  that  the 
value  of  religious  opinions  and  experiences 
"can  only  be  ascertained  by  spiritual  judg- 
ments directly  passed  upon  them,  judgments 
based  on  our  own  immediate  feeling  pri- 
marily; and  secondarily  on  what  we  can 
ascertain  of  their  experimental  relations  to  our 
moral  needs  and  to  the  rest  of  what  we  hold 
as  true.  Immediate  luminousness,  in  short,  phil- 
osophical reasonableness ,  and  moral  helpfulness 
are  the  only  available  criteria."1 

I  have  been  myself  in  the  habit  of  stating 
essentially  the  same  three  tests,  in  saying 
that  the  value  of  any  religious  teaching  or 
method  or  experience  for  any  given  person 
depended  on  its  power  to  make  the  spiritual 


l66    PERSONAL   AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

world  and  the  religious  life  real,  rational 
and  vital — to  make  them  seem  to  the  man 
(i)  undoubted  realities,  (2)  knit  up  with  his 
best  thinking  in  other  spheres,  and  (3)  with 
clear  significance  for  life,  as  appeal  and  im- 
pulse to  character,  and  as  bringing  enlarge- 
ment and  enrichment  into  life. 

Now,  when  we  so  test  the  two  methods 
of  conversion,  each  may  be  seen  to  have 
certain  advantages. 

That  a  thing  should  be  real  for  us,  in  the 
first  place,  depends  on  two  things:  on  the 
one  hand,  it  should  be  like  enough  to  the 
rest  of  life  to  seem  inevitably  knit  up  with 
it;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  dif- 
ferent enough  to  be  felt  to  have  a  valuable 
and  distinct  contribution  to  make  to  life. 
Conversion  through  a  sudden  and  striking 
experience,  no  doubt,  more  easily  meets  the 
second  condition ;  the  method  of  Christian 
training  and  growth  more  easily  meets  the 
first  condition.  For  the  sudden  conversion 
gives  undoubtedly  a  more  intense  and  im- 
mediate sense  of  reality — a  sense  of  reality  so 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          167 

strong  that  the  impression  of  it  may  abide 
as  a  permanent  source  of  conviction  for  life. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  less  easy  to 
connect  convincingly  such  experiences  with 
the  common  daily  life,  and  here  the  gradual 
conversion  has  the  advantage. 

The  same  fact  makes  it  easier  for  the 
method  of  Christian  training  to  show  the 
rationality  of  the  religious  life.  Its  processes 
are  everywhere  closely  akin  to  those  ration- 
ally approved  in  other  spheres  of  life.  And 
it  is  guided  by  the  same  sober  judgment, 
chastened  by  long  experience.  It  can  appeal, 
also,  to  more  common  and  constant  analogies. 

In  the  direct  appeal  to  the  ethical  result 
in  life,  to  the  moral  helpfulness  of  the  change, 
the  sadden  conversion  is  naturally  likely  to 
show  more  immediate  and  striking  results, 
but  also  shows  more  disappointing  reactions. 
And  the  appeal  to  experience  in  the  long 
run  can  hardly  be  held  to  evince  the  supe- 
riority of  the  method  of  sudden  conversion. 
Once,  again,  the  best  method  to  be  used 
seems  to  depend  largely  upon  temperament. 


1 68     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

The  facts,  as  shown  by  the  wide  inductive 
inquiries  of  Professors  James,  Starbuck  and 
Coe,  seem  to  indicate  simply  that  both 
methods  have  given  great  and  beneficent 
changes.  Characters  of  the  highest  type  are 
to  be  found  in  both  classes.  If  I  may  appeal 
to  the  history  of  my  own  community,  Oberlin 
has  had  a  remarkable  example  of  each  type 
in  two  of  its  successive  Presidents — President 
Finney  and  President  Fairchild.  Though  so 
different  in  natural  temperament,  one  would 
hardly  dare  to  say  that  either  was  superior 
to  the  other  in  his  own  personal  character, 
or  in  the  impress  of  that  character  upon 
others.  In  very  different  ways  both  did  pro- 
digious work  for  the  progress  of  righteousness 
and  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  world.  The 
immediate  strength  and  intensity  of  appeal 
of  the  one  was  paralleled  by  the  quiet  all- 
round  undiscounted  and  permanent  appeal 
of  the  other. 

It  seems  only  fair,  then,  to  conclude  that 
neither  type  or  method  of  conversion  has  all 
the  advantages.  Both  methods  fairly  meet 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          1 69 

the  best  tests  we  can  apply,  but  not  always 
in  equal  degree. 

3.  Why  Suddenness  Still  Seems  Significant. — 
But  when  all  this  has  been  said,  there 
remains  still,  probably,  in  most  minds  a 
misgiving  that,  nevertheless,  the  sudden  ex- 
perience is,  for  some  reason,  more  manifestly 
divine.  And  the  reason  that  underlies  this 
misgiving,  it  is  important  for  us  fully  to  face. 
That  reason,  I  suppose,  is  this :  The  sudden 
experience,  it  seems  less  possible  to  refer  to 
simply  human  causes ;  we  are  less  able  to 
trace  its  causal  connections  with  preceding 
human  states  and  conditions,  and,  thus,  are 
led  to  refer  it  more  confidently  to  God's  direct 
work.  And  the  religious  life  needs  to  believe 
in  the  reality  of  God's  working  in  and  for  us. 

Now,  I  cannot  help  believing  that  there 
is  a  sound  instinct  back  of  the  reason  so 
given.  Certainly  it  is  useless  to  talk  about  a 
religious  life  at  all,  if  God  cannot  and  does 
not  come  into  some  real  effective  relation  to 
our  inner  life,  and  a  relation,  too,  that  means 
something  more  than  the  mere  on  -  going  of 


I7O     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL    ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

our  own  mental  processes,  though  our  whole 
being  be  regarded  as  bestowed  by  God.  We 
need  imperatively,  for  the  very  possibility  of 
genuine  religion,  faith  in  a  power  who  is 
more  and  other  than  ourselves,  and  with 
whom  we  can  come  into  a  relation  that  can 
mean  something  practical  for  our  life.  The 
emphasis  upon  sudden  and  marked  experi- 
ences, therefore,  arises  naturally  from  this 
desire  and  necessity  of  religion  to  believe  in 
a  truly  living  God. 

I  need  not  argue,  in  this  paper,  for  the 
reality  of  such  an  effective  relation  to  God. 
I  need  not  even  remind  you  of  Lotze's  words, 
spoken  as  a  philosopher,  in  full  view  of  all 
possible  scientific  and  philosophical  objec- 
tions :  w There  is  nothing  whatever  that  stands 
in  opposition  to  the  further  conviction  that 
God,  at  particular  moments  and  in  particular 
persons,  may  have  stood  nearer  to  humanity, 
or  may  have  revealed  himself  at  such  moments 
and  in  such  persons  in  a  more  eminent  way 
than  at  other  moments  and  in  other  persons. 
It  is  even  without  doubt  legitimate  to  regard 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          1 71 

the  relation  in  which  He  (Christ)  stood  to 
God  as  absolutely  unique,  not  only  as  to 
degree,  but  also  as  to  its  essential  quality."1 

I  need  not  remind  you  that  even  so  radical 
a  thinker  as  Pfleiderer  can  say:  "And  why 
should  it  be  less  possible  for  God  to  enter 
into  loving  fellowship  with  us  than  for  men 
to  do  so  with  each  other?  I  should  be  in- 
clined to  think  that  He  is  even  more  capable 
of  doing  so."2 

I  need  not  now  adduce  any  of  these  gen- 
eral considerations;  for  between  those  who 
defend  especially  the  two  types  of  conversion 
and  the  two  methods  of  Christian  training 
and  of  revival,  there  is  really  no  difference  of 
opinion  upon  this  point.  Both  believe  and 
must  believe  fully  in  the  reality  of  God's 
working  in  and  for  them.  Both  know  that 
religion  is  no  mere  human  product,  and  are 
interested  in  anything  that  adds  clearness  to 
their  conception  of  God's  relation  to  them. 

'Lotze,  Outlines  of  the  Philosophy  of  Religion,  Ginn's  edition, 
pp.  149,  150. 

'Quoted  by  Orr,  The  Christian  Vitiu  of  God  and  the  World, 
p.  63. 


172     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

In  the  end,  I  suspect,  both  appeal  to 
essentially  the  same  considerations.  Both,  that 
is,  note  results  in  their  experience  and  life, 
which  they  do  not  see  how  they  can  ascribe 
simply  to  themselves,  and  which,  because  of 
the  quality  of  the  results  (already  considered) , 
they  believe  may  be  reverently  and  rationally 
ascribed  to  God.  In  the  one  case,  the  results 
appealed  to  have  probably  come  in  one  or 
a  few  sudden  and  marked  experiences.  In 
the  other  case  the  appeal  is  made  to  certain 
trends  and  leadings  in  the  long  sweep  of  their 
lives,  that  seem  to  them,  manifestly,  no  part 
of  their  own  direct  planning.  But  in  both 
cases,  where  there  is  any  strong  sense  of  liv- 
ing relation  to  God  day  by  day,  appeal  will 
be  pretty  certainly  made  to  certain  serious 
moods,  moments  of  insight,  times  of  high 
resolve,  comparatively  sudden  in  their  appear- 
ance, and  that  seemed  to  lift  them  quite  above 
their  ordinary  selves.  If  they  believe  in  a 
living  God  at  all,  they  can  hardly  fail  to  con- 
nect such  times  with  God.  And  there  is  no 
good  reason  why  they  should  not  do  so. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          173 

Experiences  of  this  kind,  that  will  stand  the 
rational  and  ethical  test  in  life,  may  well  be 
referred  to  God,  unless  one  is  willing  to 
believe  that  there  is  nothing  higher  than 
one's  self. 

In  carrying  out  this  line  of  thought,  one 
may  appeal  to  the  analogy  of  other  personal 
relations.  The  significance  of  all  such  re- 
lations seems  to  come  upon  us  chiefly  in 
scattered  moments  of  sudden  insight.  We 
say  accurately  that  what  such  a  friendship 
means  suddenly  w  came  over  us,"  or,  that 
we  w  awakened "  to  it.  Moreover,  it  is  at 
points  somewhat  critical  that  our  friendships 
count  most.  No  doubt,  in  both  the  human 
and  the  divine  relations,  the  personal  relation 
is  exerting  its  steady  hourly  unconscious 
pressure,  but  what  it  really  means  to  us,  how 
much  it  can  do  and  is  doing  for  us,  comes 
only  occasionally  and  briefly  into  full  con- 
sciousness. It  would  be  difficult  at  each  com- 
mon step  to  see  just  what  definite  contribution 
our  friend  is  making  to  our  living  and  think- 
ing ;  we  can  see  it  more  clearly  at  the  critical 


174    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

moments.  So  in  our  relation  to  God.  We 
are  right  in  inferring  the  real  help  of  our 
friend  and  of  God  at  these  times  of  crisis ; 
but  we  are  not  justified  thereby  in  denying 
their  influence  all  along;  in  fact,  it  is  to  this 
steady  influence  that  we  ought  to  awaken. 
God's  greatest  work  for  us,  no  doubt,  like 
that  of  any  significant  personal  relation,  is 
done  for  us  chiefly  in  comparative  uncon- 
sciousness upon  our  part.  Probably  in  both 
types  of  conversion  this  is  true ;  but  in  the 
abrupt  type  the  times  of  crisis  are  fewer  and 
more  striking;  in  the  gradual  type  they  are 
comparatively  frequent  and  so  less  striking. 
The  psychological  inquiry,  as  we  have  seen, 
naturally  refers  the  divine  working  to  the 
subliminal  region  of  our  minds. 

Now,  there  is  a  further  ethical  reason 
why  God's  working  for  us  and  upon  us 
should  largely  go  on  in  unconsciousness  in 
the  subliminal  sphere.  Since  God  is  trying 
to  bring  us  to  a  life  and  character  of  our 
own,  that  shall  be  the  result  of  our  own 
choosing,  it  is  of  the  highest  importance 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          175 

that  his  relation  to  us  should  be  unobtrusive, 
marked  by  the  most  delicate  consideration 
for  our  own  personality  and  moral  initiative. 
Like  a  wise  and  loving  father  in  relation  to 
a  growing  child,  his  choices  for  us  will  not 
be  forced  upon  us,  but  his  activity  will  be 
rather  in  the  background  of  our  life.  Because 
the  life  and  character  are  to  be  our  own,  God 
seems  definitely  to  intend  that  we  shall  not 
be  able  wholly  to  disentangle  his  working 
from  ours.  He  is  at  work,  and  yet  it  is  our 
choice ;  every  step  in  our  Christian  life  is  to 
be  both  human  and  divine. 

While,  then,  the  question  of  suddenness  in 
religious  experience  is  not  in  itself  vital,  and 
while  our  appeal  must  always  be  made  to  the 
tests  of  the  real,  the  rational,  and  the  ethical, 
we  can  still  see  why  men'  have  naturally  made 
much  of  the  mysterious  and  sudden  in  re- 
ligion, and  why  God  should  do  much  of  his 
work  for  us  in  unconsciousness.  And  we  can 
also  see  that  both  types  of  conversion  make 
their  appeal  alike  to  phenomena  essentially 
the  same  in  their  nature,  because  the  sense 


176    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN  EDUCATION 

of  a  living  God  in  real  effective  relation  to 
us  is  absolutely  vital  to  religion. 

Our  discussion  thus  far  makes  it  probable 
that  both  types  of  conversion,  and  by  in- 
ference both  methods  of  religious  effort, 
have  their  relative  psychological  justification. 
At  the  same  time  it  has  inevitably  suggested 
dangers  in  both  methods  and  the  need  of 
both.  And,  first,  let  us  consider  more  defi- 
nitely the  dangers  both  of  the  method  of  all- 
round  Christian  training,  and  of  the  method 
of  the  revival.  Both  methods  agree  that  the 
final  aim  must  be  to  bring  the  man  into 
living  communion  with  the  living  God. 

VII.  THE  DANGERS  OF  MERELY  EDUCATIONAL 
METHODS 

If  this  is  the  real  aim  in  all  religious 
effort,  what  are  the  dangers  of  the  purely 
educational  methods  of  Christian  training? 

i.  The  first  danger  seems  to  me  to  be 
that  of  over-emphasis  upon  the  intellectual  side. 
The  almost  inevitable  tendency  of  all  kinds 
of  education  is  in  this  direction.  A  protest  is 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          177 

continually  needed  in  all  education  in  favor 
of  the  whole  man.  But  the  exclusively  intel- 
lectual tendency  is  peculiarly  powerful  and 
peculiarly  dangerous  in  religion.  It  is  pecu- 
liarly powerful,  because  a  true  religious  ex- 
perience that  brings  one  really  into  the 
presence  of  God  in  Christ  involves  much 
that  is  searching,  revolutionary,  and  uncom- 
fortable. It  is  far  easier  to  accept  from  others 
proper  opinions  and  theories  of  the  Christian 
life,  than  to  come  into  that  life  for  ourselves. 
The  tendency  is  peculiarly  dangerous  in  re- 
ligion, because  nowhere  is  so  much  at  stake. 
But  a  true  education  is  never  the  mere  giv- 
ing of  instruction.  Knowledge  about  a  thing 
can  never  alone  give  acquaintance  with  it. 
Knowledge  about  God  is  not  acquaintance 
with  him.  One  might  conceivably  have  had 
the  most  perfectly  ordered  course  of  instruc- 
tion in  religious  themes,  and  have  no  part  in 
any  sound  religious  life  for  himself.  Ger- 
many clearly  shows  that  the  most  thorough- 
going religious  instruction  by  no  means  in- 
sures a  truly  religious  people.  Indeed,  some  of 

L 


178     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

Germany's  clearest-sighted  religious  teachers 
recognize  the  grave  temptation  and  danger 
of  substituting  this  religious  instruction  for 
religious  life.  And,  as  we  try  to  systematize 
and  perfect  our  religious  education,  as  we 
surely  ought  to  do,  we  must  not  shut  our 
eyes  to  the  danger  which  steadily  confronts 
us,  of  over -emphasis  upon  the  intellectual 
side.  The  whole  man  must  be  called  out  in 
a  living  personal  relation  to  God.  The  end 
is  life,  not  a  body  of  opinion,  not  a  book. 
w  And  this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  should 
know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Him 
whom  Thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ." 
2.  The  second  danger  in  purely  edu- 
cational methods  grows  out  of  the  first,  and 
is  the  danger  of  lack  of  a  powerful  grip  through 
feeling  upon  the  life  of  the  man.  We  must  not 
forget  that  it  is  preeminently  through  feeling 
that  the  sense  of  reality  of  all  things  comes. 
Feeling  differs  greatly,  no  doubt,  in  different 
temperaments ;  but  only  in  serious  patho- 
logical states  is  there  a  comparatively  total 
lack  of  feeling  that  gives  an  awful  sense  of 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          179 

hollowness  and  meaninglessness  to  life.  We 
cannot  afford  to  ignore  or  underestimate  feel- 
ing in  the  religious  life,  much  as  we  may 
deplore  its  excesses  and  all  undue  appeal  to 
it.  Feeling  has  its  large,  legitimate,  and  im- 
portant place  in  religion,  as  in  all  life.  Let 
us  only  remember  that  the  very  possibility  of 
any  self-consciousness,  of  any  moral  life,  and 
of  any  sense  of  reality  depends  upon  it.  Our 
motives,  too,  get  strong  hold  upon  us  com- 
monly only  through  some  feeling.  And,  above 
all,  in  religious  education,  let  us  not  make 
the  mistake  of  the  mere  drill-master.  A  man 
may  be  an  admirable  drill-master  in  Greek 
forms  and  constructions,  and  quite  fail  to 
awaken  any  real  appreciative  interest  in  Greek 
life  and  literature.  And  one  may  set  forth 
the  most  orthodox  theological  system,  and 
give  no  single  touch  of  life  in  and  with 
God. 

3.  A  third  danger,  to  which  the  edu- 
cational method  is  liable,  is  losing  the  sense  of 
God  in  it  all.  Where  we  are  doing  and  plan- 
ning &o  much  as  in  a  fully  elaborated  system 


l8o    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

of  religious  education,  it  is  easy  for  us  to 
come  to  think  that  we  are  virtually  doing 
all.  We  too  readily  forget  that,  as  in  any 
personal  relation,  the  knowledge  of  God  de- 
pends upon  his  own  personal  self-revelation. 
Let  me  remind  you  once  more  of  that  deep 
word  of  Herrmann's :  "  The  certainty  of  God 
is  not  the  product  of  human  strivings."  In 
our  multiplication  of  means  and  methods 
and  organizations  and  conventions,  we  easily 
come  to  depend  too  much  on  one  another 
and  too  little  upon  God  himself.  It  is  quite 
true  and  most  important  that  we  are  "mem- 
bers one  of  another,"  and  that  many  of  the 
best  revelations  of  God  we  get  may  come 
through  our  brethren ;  but  if  we  are  none 
of  us  anywhere  in  direct  relation  to  God 
himself,  our  religion  is  of  merely  human 
manufacture.  It  gives  us  no  such  hold  as  it 
ought  to  give,  upon  the  spiritual  and  eternal. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  there  is  the  same 
danger  in  all  over-organized  revival  work. 
We  seem  to  leave,  as  it  were,  no  opportunity 
for  any  spontaneous  work  of  God  in  our 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          l8l 

hearts.    All   is    prescribed    by   our   methods 
and  directions. 

4.  Perhaps  all  the  dangers,  thus  far  con- 
sidered, of  the  training  method  may  be 
summed  up,  in  spite  of  large  intellectual 
enrichment,  in  the  danger  of  losing  a  deep 
significant  inner  life  as  the  support  of  all  outer 
activity.  There  is  no  sure  road  to  such 
depth  of  inner  life,  except  through  personal 
experience.  The  help  that  others  can  give 
must  be  in  doing  something  to  put  one  in 
the  presence  of  the  great  realities  whose 
power  they  themselves  have  felt.  Beyond 
that,  the  man  must  go  alone,  to  be  met  of 
God.  There  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt 
that  where  religion  comes  to  seem  to  men 
chiefly  a  matter  of  learning  of  others,  there 
personal  religious  relation  to  God  tends  to 
drop  away,  and  independent  spiritual  power 
tends  to  decline.  Doubtless,  great  mistakes 
have  been  made  in  the  definite  seeking  of 
marked  religious  experiences,  but  the  attempt 
at  least  has  kept  alive  the  primal  truth,  that 
no  man  can  live  his  religious  life  by  proxy. 


l82     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

5.  Once  more,  our  entire  discussion  sug- 
gests, as  perhaps  the  greatest  danger  of  a 
purely  educational  method  in  religion,  that 
it  shall  make,  only  in  the  opposite  direction, 
the  great  mistake  of  the  revival  method — the 
mistake  of  ignoring  basic  temperamental  dif- 
ferences between  men,  and  insisting  that  the 
religious  experience  of  all  shall  be  upon  the 
same  pattern.  It  peculiarly  concerns  the 
man  who  wishes  to  base  his  methods  of 
dealing  with  men  upon  sound  psychological 
study,  to  bear  continually  in  mind  that  the 
great  truths  and  interests  and  motives  simply 
do  not  come  to  us  all  in  the  same  way. 
And  it  is,  probably,  as  real  a  mistake  to 
prescribe  for  all  men  the  method  of  gradual 
conversion  as  to  prescribe  for  all  the  method 
of  sudden  conversion.  We  must  learn,  if  we 
are  ever  to  deal  justly  and  charitably  with 
another  in  religion,  that  we  are  not  all  made 
upon  the  same  plan,  nor  led  in  the  same 
way ;  and  that  we  have  no  right  to  erect  our 
special  type  of  experience  forthwith  into  a 
norm,  by  which  all  others  are  to  be  cen- 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          183 

soriously  judged  by  us.  There  is  no  one 
ideal  method  of  preaching,  or  of  religious 
appeal.  God  uses  quite  different  agencies  to 
appeal  to  different  men.  There  is  no  dif- 
ficulty in  these  agencies  working  harmo- 
niously side  by  side,  if  each  does  not  erect 
itself  censoriously  into  the  one  only  right 
and  valuable  agency. 

The  man  whose  natural  tendency  is  strongly 
toward  educational  methods  in  religion,  must 
be  especially  careful  not  to  underestimate 
the  value  of  marked  experiences,  simply  on 
the  ground  that  it  seems  to  him  that  the 
immediate  change  in  life  is  not  particularly 
great,  or  because  the  immediate  change 
produced  tends  somewhat  to  diminish.  He 
must  not  forget  that  his  own  insights  do  not 
give  their  full  result  at  once,  and  often 
diminish  in  direct  effectiveness ;  and  yet,  it 
remains  true,  that  the  time  of  vision  of  an 
ideal,  the  sudden  sense  of  one's  own  possi- 
bilities, may  remain  a  gift  of  permanent 
value,  and  of  steadily  lifting  power. 


1 84     PERSONAL  AND    IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 
VIII.     THE    DANGERS   OF  THE    REVIVAL  METHOD 

I.  Turning,  now,  to  the  dangers  of  the 
revival  method,  let  me  say  at  once  that 
probably  no  danger  has  been  so  great  in  the 
history  of  revivals  as  just  this  danger  of 
demanding  one  type  of  experience  from  all  men, 
insisting  that  where  the  prescribed  experi- 
ence did  not  come,  there  was  some  deep 
moral  failure  in  the  individual.  This  insis- 
tence has  wrought  evil  in  three  ways :  First, 
it  has  tended  to  lay  a  quite  unwholesome 
emphasis  upon  the  form  of  religious  experi- 
ence, instead  of  upon  the  real  fundamental 
ethical  relation  to  God  and  to  men ;  second,  it 
has  tended  to  lead  men  to  more  or  less  super- 
ficial and  self-deceived  imitation  of  others' 
experiences ;  third,  it  has  tended  to  throw 
into  deep  darkness  and  almost  despair  some 
of  the  most  conscientious  and  clear-sighted 
men  and  women,  whose  temperament  hardly 
allowed  the  experience  sought,  and  who 
could  not  deceive  themselves  as  to  the  form 
of  their  experience,  but  knew  that  they  had 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          1 85 

not    come    into    an    experience    of    the    pre- 
scribed type. 

These  three  mistakes  are  still  being  re- 
peated again  and  again  by  many  most  ear- 
nest and  conscientious  religious  leaders.  They 
have  had,  themselves,  some  special  experience 
that  has  been  most  real  and  vital  to  them; 
about  that  experience  they  have  gathered, 
naturally,  certain  specific  theories  of  the  reli- 
gious life  that  seem  best  to  fit  their  type 
of  experience  and  so  seem  authoritative,  and 
then  in  all  honesty — not  meaning  to  walk  in 
either  pride  or  censoriousness — they  proceed 
absolutely  to  prescribe  just  this  type  of  ex- 
perience and  just  these  theories  as  alone 
admissible  in  a  truly  Christian  life.  All  of  us 
are  liable  in  some  degree  to  the  same  mis- 
take ;  but  it  peculiarly  besets  those  whose 
experiences  are  marked.  And  so  we  see  the 
church  cut  up  into  little  sections,  each  one 
of  which  seems  to  itself  to  have  alone  the 
true  Christian  experience.  But  let  us  at  least 
be  sure  that  the  unteachable  and  censorious 
spirit  is  no  true  fruit  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 


1 86     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL    ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

2.  The  peculiar  dangers  of  the  revival 
method,  then,  are  the  dangers  that  naturally 
attend  sudden  and  marked  experiences.  It  is 
worth  while  to  point  these  dangers  out  still 
more  specifically. 

(i)  For  those  upon  whom  these  marked 
experiences  have  come  with  greatest  power, 
I  have  already  indicated,  there  is  the  danger 
of  resting  in  these  experiences  as  an  end  in 
themselves,  and  so  carrying  them  to  plain 
excess — a  danger  repeatedly  evident  in  reli- 
gious history ;  and  the  danger  of  making  their 
individual  experience  an  authoritative  type 
for  all,  and  so  becoming  finally  very  censori- 
ous. And  these  dangers  are  not  slight,  nor 
uncommon. 

Besides  these  dangers,  there  is  the  natural 
danger  of  reaction  which  follows  any  intense 
emotional  experience — a  reaction  that  inter- 
feres with  the  expected  results  in  life.  Where 
such  results  do  not  follow,  there  is  then 
great  danger  of  either  self-deception,  or  of 
comparative  despair;  i.  e.,  the  man  either 
persuades  himself  that  the  sin  into  which 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          187 

he  may  have  fallen  after  his  great  experience 
is  not  a  sin,  but  at  most  only  a  mistake,  and 
so  begins  to  juggle  with  his  conscience  with 
the  most  serious  results  for  his  life ;  or,  he 
says  to  himself,  in  despairing  mood,  "Surely, 
if  such  an  experience  as  this  that  I  have 
had  has  not  delivered  me  from  the  life  of 
sin,  it  is  useless  to  attempt  further." 

(2)  For    those,    in   the    second    place,  to 
whom  these  intense  experiences  did  not  come 
so  naturally,  but  who  yet  felt  that  they  were 
necessary  and   so   persistently    strained    after 
them  until   at  least  some  semblance  of  them 
was  attained,  there  is  the  danger  that  attends 
all   straining   after   feeling — the   danger   of   a 
more  or  less  forced  and  abnormal  state,  that 
has  to   be   somewhat   artificially    maintained, 
and   that   is  quite   sure  to  give  finally   either 
a  morbidly  tense  or  a  hollow  aspect  to  the 
whole    religious   life.     Neither   result  would 
have  followed   a  reasonable   regard   for  their 
natural  temperament. 

(3)  Just     because     striking      experiences 
seem  so  significant  and  important,  the  revival 


l88     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

worker  himself  will  be  tempted  also  to 
underestimate  the  long  preceding  time  of 
preparation  by  others  for  the  harvest  hour, 
and  to  fail  to  recognize  as  well  how  impera- 
tively the  times  of  great  experience  require 
to  be  followed  up  with  careful,  thoughtful 
teaching  and  training,  that  shall  not  allow 
their  high  resolves  to  be  dissipated  in  mere 
sentiment,  but  shall  insure  a  broadly  de- 
veloped, growing  Christian  life. 

The  wise  revival  worker,  therefore,  must 
be  peculiarly  on  his  guard  against  the  dangers 
that  naturally  attend  sudden  and  marked 
experiences. 

3.  Moreover,  the  emphasis  of  revival 
workers  upon  the  value  of  great  experiences 
has  naturally,  though  unconsciously,  tended 
to  a  somewhat  mechanical  and  practically  super- 
stitious view  of  the  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
in  the  hearts  of  men.  Just  because  they 
have  thought  so  much  of  the  form  of  the 
experience  itself,  they  have  tended  to  identify 
it  with  the  coming  of  the  Spirit  of  God  into 
the  life,  and  to  count  it  forthwith  what  they 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          1 89 

have  by  preference  called  the  baptism  or 
the  enduement  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  choos- 
ing out  of  the  many  New  Testament  ex- 
pressions just  these  impersonal  terms,  they 
unconsciously  show  how  impersonally  they 
conceive  the  whole  process.  And  it  is  per- 
ilous to  conceive  a  relation  so  intensely 
personal  as  religion  ought  to  be,  in  this 
impersonal,  mechanical,  magical  fashion. 
The  sublime  vital  fact  in  conversion  surely 
is  that  we  have  now  entered  upon  a  vol- 
untary, life-long,  personal  relation  to  God, 
and  so  thrown  ourselves  open  to  the  presence 
and  power  in  our  lives  of  the  personal  Spirit 
of  the  loving,  mighty  God.  The  Holy  Spirit 
is  not  a  thing  like  water  that  brings  some 
mechanical  cleansing ;  but  the  coming  of  the 
Spirit  is  the  beginning  of  a  great  new 
powerful  personal  association  that  is  increas- 
ingly to  dominate  our  lives.  Christ  promises 
the  Comforter,  that  he  may  w  be  with  us 
forever." 

The  preference  for  the  term  "the  baptism 
of  the   Spirit"  seems  to  me  to  overlook  the 


I9O     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

fact  that,  with  a  single  possible  exception, 
the  New  Testament  never  uses  this  or 
kindred  terms,  except  where  there  is  a  com- 
parison, expressed  or  implied,  of  Christ's 
work  with  John's  baptism.  And  the  whole 
impersonal  conception  seems  to  me  further 
to  forget  the  more  important  fact  that  the 
prevalent  New  Testament  conception  in  this 
matter  is  that  of  an  indwelling  personal 
Spirit — a  personal  relation.  And  this  prev- 
alent New  Testament  usage  is  much  to  be 
preferred ;  for  it  turns  the  attention  away 
from  the  magical  and  sudden,  from  the  mere 
experience  or  feeling  side,  to  the  vital  fact 
of  the  great  new  powerful  personal  associa- 
tion with  God.  Even  in  the  Acts,  it  is  to  be 
noted,  the  coming  of  the  Spirit  is  not  any 
of  the  accompanying  signs  or  experiences. 
And  Paul  had  later  to  guard  his  converts 
very  carefully  against  this  mischievous  over- 
estimation  of  marked  experiences  as  such,  as 
his  letters  to  the  Corinthians  plainly  show. 
It  is  not  an  unimportant  matter,  in  a 
thing  so  vital  as  religion,  that  our  language 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          IQI 

should  reflect  as  accurately  as  possible  the 
best  conception  we  can  get  of  the  religious 
life ;  and  if  we  really  believe  that  we  do 
come  into  a  personal  communion  with  a 
personal  God,  let  our  chosen  language  show 
it.  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  prevalent  lan- 
guage in  the  church  concerning  the  Holy 
Spirit,  plainly  fostered  by  the  insistence  upon 
the  necessity  of  abrupt  and  striking  experi- 
ences for  all  temperaments  alike,  has  been 
distinctly  unfortunate  in  its  influence,  and 
has  certainly  tended  to  a  mechanical  and 
virtually  superstitious  conception  of  the  work 
of  the  Spirit  on  the  part  of  the  great  body 
of  the  church,  though  the  religious  leaders 
who  have  given  the  language  vogue  doubt- 
less can  have  intended  no  such  result. 

4.  There  remains  one  further  serious  dan- 
ger to  which  the  revival  method  is  exposed — 
the  fundamental  danger  of  failure  in  sensitive, 
delicate  reverence  for  the  personality  and  the 
moral  initiative  of  men. 

Probably,  it  is  this  not  uncommon  lack 
in  revivals  of  reverent  regard  for  the  personal 


IQ2     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

life  of  other  men,  that  has  really  been  the 
greatest  cause  of  stumbling  to  many  in  the 
common  methods  of  the  revival,  leading  not 
a  few  to  abjure  the  revival  altogether,  and 
causing  many  others  who  have  entered  into 
the  work  serious  disturbance  of  mind,  if  not 
real  misgiving. 

The  relation  of  a  man  to  God  is  so  deep, 
personal,  intimate,  and  sacred,  that  we  cannot 
help  shrinking,  even  if  unconsciously,  when 
in  all  kinds  of  ways  it  is  dragged  out  into 
the  common  gaze  of  men.  No  man  of  high 
feelings  wishes  to  wear  his  heart  upon 
his  coat-sleeve,  to  reveal  unnecessarily  the 
most  sacred  things  in  his  own  life,  or  to 
demand  such  revelation  from  others.  And 
the  more  deeply  sensitive  he  is  to  the  price- 
less value  of  the  soul  and  to  the  eternal 
significance  of  its  personal  relations  to  others, 
the  less  will  he  be  inclined  to  force  his  way 
into  the  secret  recesses  of  another's  life.  As 
he  goes  forward  into  a  deepening  life  of  his 
own,  he  comes  to  see  how  sacred  a  thing  a 
personal  relation  may  be,  and  comes  espe- 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          IQ3 

cially  to  dread  in  himself  and  in  others  this 
ruthless  overriding  of  the  personality  of  an- 
other. He  sees  that  there  can  be  no  high,  fit 
relation  of  man  to  man  or  of  man  to  God, 
where  there  is  not  plainly  present  on  both 
sides  this  reverence  for  the  person ;  and  with 
increasing  strength  he  feels  that  methods 
that  are  lacking  in  this  reverence  cannot  be 
best  adapted  to  establish  those  highest  rela- 
tions with  God  and  men  for  which  religion 
calls. 

Moreover,  where  the  aim  is,  as  in  all 
religious  work,  to  bring  a  man  to  a  choice 
that  shall  be  absolutely  and  fully  his  own,  it 
is  peculiarly  necessary  that  the  will  of  the 
other  should  never  be  overridden.  Strong 
personalities  are  always  tempted  to  dominate 
in  this  way  the  lives  and  choices  of  others. 
They  see  so  clearly  and  feel  so  strongly  the 
course  the  other  ought  to  take,  that  they 
practically  force  that  course  upon  him,  leav- 
ing him  no  fair  opportunity  to  exercise  his 
own  will.  It  is  especially  easy  to  do  this  with 
children,  and  we  need  in  such  cases  to  be 

M 


IQ4     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

doubly  on  our  guard  ;  for  forced  choices  make 
not  strong,  but  weak  character.  This  is  prob- 
ably the  prime  reason  why  God's  relation  to 
us  is  so  persistently  unobtrusive.  We  are  to 
be  disciples  of  a  Master  whom  the  New 
Testament  represents,  though  he  is  rightful 
Lord  of  all,  as  standing  at  the  door  of 
these  hearts  of  ours  and  only  knocking — 
he  will  not  force  the  door.  In  such  rever- 
ence for  the  human  personality  we  have  too 
often  followed  him  but  afar  off.  And  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  greatest  of  all  the  dangers 
of  an  ordinary  revival  is  this  lack  of  rever- 
ence for  the  human  personality. 

I  have  myself  made  so  much  in  different 
places  of  this  fundamental  need  of  reverence 
for  the  person,  that  it  may  possibly  seem  to 
some  that  I  overestimate  its  importance.  Let 
me,  therefore,  ask  you  simply  to  note  the 
corroborative  testimony  of  two  others,  though 
I  count  most  upon  the  corroboration  that 
comes  from  my  readers  themselves,  in  the 
witness  of  their  own  spiritual  sense. 

Forbush,  for  example,  in  his  careful  study 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          1 95 

of  the  religious  life  of  the  boy,  is  led  to  say: 
wlt  is  a  cowardly  thing  to  say  personal 
things  and  ask  searching  questions  of  a  boy 
in  the  midst  of  his  fellows  which  you  would 
not  dare  to  ask  that  boy  privately  in  ordi- 
nary conversation.  It  is  to  protect  these  re- 
serves thus  rudely  assaulted  that  a  boy  puts 
on  with  his  Sunday  suit  a  disguise  which  he 
carries  to  the  hand-to-hand  encounters  of  the 
Sunday-school  and  Junior  Society."1 

And  Drummond,  speaking  of  the  most 
notable  spiritual  analysts  in  the  history  of  the 
church,  still  feels  compelled  to  say:  "They 
were  most  of  them  wanting  in  that  deli- 
cacy of  handling  which  makes  analysis  effec- 
tive instead  of  insulting;  and  many  of  the 
Puritans  were  quite  destitute  of  the  foremost 
quality  which  distinguishes  the  successful 
diagnosist — respect,  veneration  even,  for  the 
soul  of  another.  A  man  may  be  ever  so 
gross  and  vulgar,  but  when  you  come  to 
deal  with  the  deepest  that  is  in  him  he 
becomes  sensitive  and  feminine.  Brusqueness 

1  Tht  Boy  Problem,  p.  166. 


196     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

and  an  impolite  familiarity  may  do  very 
well  when  dealing  with  his  brains,  but  with- 
out tenderness  and  courtesy  you  can  only 
approach  his  heart  to  shock  it.  The  whole 
of  etiquette  is  founded  on  respect;  and  by 
far  the  highest  and  tenderest  etiquette  is  the 
etiquette  of  soul  and  soul.  To  know  and 
remember  the  surpassing  dignity  of  the 
human  soul — for  its  own  sake,  for  its  God- 
like elements,  for  its  immortality,  above  all 
for  his  sake  who  made  it  and  gave  Him- 
self for  it — this  is  the  first  axiom  to  be 
remembered."1 

The  methods  of  the  constantly  improving 
evangelism  which  is  to  come  will,  then, 
earnestly  se^k  to  avoid  these  greatest 
dangers  to  which  it  is  liable,  and  which, 
even  under  the  greatest  evangelists  of  the 
past,  have  unnecessarily  alienated  and  thrown 
into  darkness  many  whom  a  different  treat- 
ment would  have  reached.  For,  as  another 
has  said,  "every  method  or  agency  used  in 
Christian  work  must  give  account  to  God 

1  The  Neiu  Evangelism,  pp.  280,  281. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THB    REVIVAL          1 97 

not  only  for  the  souls  whom  it  wins  and 
saves,  but  also  for  all  whom  it  alienates  and 
destroys."1 

The  best  evangelism,  that  seems  to  me  to 
mean,  will  carefully  avoid  the  mistake  of  in- 
sisting upon  one  type  of  experience  for  all 
men;  it  will  especially  guard  itself  against 
those  dangers  which  naturally  attend  sudden 
and  marked  experiences ;  it  will  substitute 
a  clearly  personal  conception  of  the  work  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  for  the  prevalent  imper- 
sonal conception,  which  is  so  liable  to 
become  mechanical,  if  not  positively  supersti- 
tious ;  and  it  will  cultivate  in  every  bit  of 
its  procedure  a  spirit  of  deep  reverence  for 
the  sacredness  of  the  human  personality.  In 
so  doing  it  will  fairly  meet  the  difficulties 
that  have  caused  the  rather  common  misgiv- 
ings concerning  the  revival  method,  which 
were  earlier  pointed  out. 

But  we  need  to  see  not  only  the  dangers 
of  the  methods  of  Christian  training  and 

1  Rev.  Charles  E.  McKinley,  quoted  by  Forbush,  The  Boy  Prob- 
Itm,  p.  169. 


198     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

of  the  revival,  but  the  positive  reasons  which 
may  be  urged  for  the  need  of  both,  if  we 
are  fully  to  meet  the  problem  set  us. 


IX.     THE    NEED    OF    CHRISTIAN    TRAINING 

In  Christian  training  I  mean  to  include 
all  methods  of  Christian  nurture  as  applied 
to  children,  and  all  methods  of  progressive 
conformation  of  men,  body  and  mind,  to 
the  Christian  ideal  —  the  all-round  education 
that  aims  to  call  out  the  entire  man  in  a  full 
and  habitual  response  to  Christ's  purpose 
for  him — to  give  him  a  body  that  shall  be 
the  best  medium  and  instrument  for  the 
spirit,  to  insure  growing  intellectual  grasp 
upon  all  Christian  truth,  a  quick  sensitive- 
ness to  the  finest  implications  of  Christian 
faith  in  the  emotional  life,  and  a  sure 
response  in  will  and  deed  to  the  highest 
Christian  motives. 

i.  I  have  already  indicated,  in  my  paper 
before  the  Religious  Education  Association, 
that  in  carrying  out  this  aim  our  main 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          IQQ 

reliance  must  be  upon  personal  association 
with  men  of  high  Christian  character  and 
attainment,  and  upon  expressive  activity. 

(1)  The   highest   service   we   can   do   for 
another   is  first  to  be  what   he  ought  to   be- 
come,   and,    second,  to   bear   honest  witness 
to  that  in  which  we   ourselves  most  live — to 
those    great    realities    in    which    God     most 
surely  finds  us.    And   the  preeminent  quali- 
ties which  make  a  man's  witness  count  with 
us  go  right  back  to  himself  again ;    for  they 
are   his    own   manifest   deep   conviction,  our 
faith    in    his    character    and    judgment,    and 
our    faith    in    his  disinterested    love  for    us. 
There  is,  thus,  no   way  in   which  any  effec- 
tive  religious    education    can    dispense   with 
high  personal  association  as  its  prime  factor. 
The  results  of  Mr.  Goodman's  wide  inquiry 
into  the  special  needs  of   the  religious  work 
of   the  Young   Men's   Christian  Association, 
he    believed,    primarily    indicated     just    this 
preeminent    need    of    "strong,    progressive, 
spiritual  leadership." 

(2)  And,  in  the  second  place,  it  is  only 


2OO    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

as  our  ideas  and  sentiments  and  ideals  are 
put  into  some  expressive  activity  that  we 
come  into  real  appreciation  of  them,  or  that 
they  get  their  full  hold  upon  us.  It  is  this 
sound  psychological  principle  which  lies 
back  of  the  whole  aim  to  conform  the  man, 
body  and  mind,  increasingly  to  the  Chris- 
tian ideal.  It  is  believed  with  reason  that 
such  expressive  activity  will  be  followed 
inevitably  by  deepening  feeling  and  deepen- 
ing intellectual  appreciation.  All  the  so- 
called  secular  agencies  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  have  here  their  full 
psychological  and  religious  justification. 

Surely  the  finest  of  all  fine  arts  is  the 
fine  art  of  living,  and  no  man  will  drift  into 
high  attainment  here.  Obviously,  we  need 
to  carry  out,  in  the  light  of  the  most  careful 
study  of  human  nature,  the  broadest  educa- 
tion of  men  religiously.  Drummond  makes 
a  strong  plea  in  one  chapter  of  his  The  New 
Evangelism  for  this  careful  study  of  human 
nature  for  distinctly  religious  ends.  And 
such  books  as  Starbuck's  Psychology  of  Re- 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THB    REVIVAL          2OI 

ligion,  Coe's  The  Spiritual  Life,  Granger's 
The  Soul  of  a  Christian,  Forbush's  The  Boy 
Problem,  and  James'  The  Varieties  of  Religious 
Experience,  and  the  work  of  the  new  Re- 
ligious Education  Association,  must  help 
decidedly  in  giving  better  knowledge  of  our 
problem.  But  it  should  be  noticed  that 
James'  book,  by  intention,  confines  itself 
almost  exclusively  to  cases  rather  out  of  the 
ordinary;  and  that  everywhere  we  need  a 
wider  induction  than  has  yet  been  made. 

2.  Moreover,  even  if  sudden  and  marked 
experiences  were  regarded  as  in  all  cases 
absolutely  indispensable,  it  would  still  be 
true  that,  if  they  were  to  be  really  significant 
for  high  and  broad  living,  they  would  re- 
quire careful  Christian  education  both  for 
preparation  and  for  appreciation.  There  is 
no  way  in  which  the  times  of  vision  can 
dispense  with  preceding  training  and  later 
thinking,  if  the  vision  is  to  mean  most  to  us. 
Any  really  valuable  revivalism,  therefore, 
requires  broad  Christian  education  to  supple- 
ment it;  and  our  best  evangelists  are  increas- 


2O2    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

ingly    recognizing    this    even     in     the     very 
midst  of  their  revival  work. 

3.  But  the  need  of  Christian  training  is 
much  more  broadly  based.  For  we  have 
already  seen  that,  in  meeting  the  aim  of  all 
religious  effort,  to  bring  the  man  into  actual 
communion  with  God,  the  religious  teacher 
is  practically  shut  up  to  witnessing  to  those 
realities  that  have  most  surely  revealed  God 
to  him.  And  we  have  also  seen  that,  aside 
from  the  indispensable  personal  qualities  of 
the  effective  witness  —  conviction,  character 
and  judgment,  and  love  —  our  witnessing 
needs  power  to  make  God  and  the  spiritual 
life  real,  rational,  and  vital.  This  power 
requires  both  a  deep  acquaintance  with 
Christ,  and  a  deep  acquaintance  'with  our  own 
time.  And  these  needs  hold  both  for  the 
Christian  teacher  and  for  the  Christian  evan- 
gelist.1 For  we  may  not  hope  to  make  the 
Christian  message  real,  rational,  and  vital, 
without  a  knowledge  of  the  consciousness  to 

JIn  the  remainder  of  this  section  I  transfer,  with  slight  changes, 
certain  portions  of  some  articles  on  The  Ntiv  Evangelism,  written 
by  request  for  Tht  Congregationalist. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          2O3 

which  we  appeal.  The  two  needs  inter- 
penetrate each  other ;  for  certain  marked 
characteristics  of  our  time  bring  us  in  a 
peculiar  way  face  to  face  with  the  historical 
Christ. 

Let  us  see,  then,  first  of  all,  the  great 
advantage  which  our  age,  by  what  it  has 
accomplished,  offers  to  us  in  the  opportunity 
to  deepen  our  knowledge  of  Christ  and  the 
Christian  message,  and  so  to  increase  the 
power  of  our  witness.  Because  Christianity 
is  a  historical  religion,  to  know  Christ  means, 
to  begin  with,  direct,  first-hand,  inductive, 
historical  Bible  study,  book  by  book.  For 
here  in  the  Bible  is  the  record  of  the  pre- 
eminent meetings  of  God  with  men,  and  the 
direct  reflections  of  the  supreme  revelation 
in  Christ.  The  Bible,  then,  must  be  to  the 
Christian  witness,  above  all,  a  real  book, 
alive  with  real  characters,  permeated  with 
real  and  powerful  personal  influences,  and 
there  must  grow  upon  him  the  conviction 
that  in  that  great  line  of  God's  historical 
self-revelation  to  Israel,  through  the  prophets 


2O4    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

and  culminating  in  Christ,  we  have  to  do  with 
far  the  greatest  movement  of  all  history.  No 
season  of  revival  effort  can  accomplish  that 
aim;  it  needs  the  broadest  Christian  education. 
(i)  The  Historical  Spirit  in  ^ible  Study. — 
For  no  man  should  lose  sight  of  the  special 
opportunity  given  to  our  time  by  the  progress 
of  historical  criticism.  We  are  now  able  to 
put  the  different  books  of  Scripture  into 
their  historical  setting  to  an  extent  and  with 
a  certainty  never  before  possible.  It  is  prob- 
ably within  the  truth  to  say,  for  example,  that 
for  the  first  time  since  the  books  were 
written  men  are  able  to  read  the  prophets  as 
a  whole  with  an  understanding  of  the  real 
historical  meaning  of  all  essential  portions. 
Such  books  as  George  Adam  Smith's  The 
Book  of  the  Twelve  Prophets  and  Sanders  and 
Kent's  Messages  of  the  Prophets  put  that 
result  within  reach  of  even  the  ordinary 
reader.  Have  we  considered  how  much  that 
ought  to  mean  in  making  the  prophets  alive 
and  real  to  us,  and  in  putting  us  in  living 
possession  of  their  message? 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL         2O5 

So,  too,  have  we  felt  the  tremendous  sig- 
nificance of  the  fact  that  every  life  of  Christ 
worth  reading,  outside  the  Gospels,  has  been 
written  since  1835?  That  is,  this  generation 
has  given  to  the  life  of  Christ  such  direct, 
painstaking,  historical  study  as  the  world  has 
never  before  seen ;  and  as  a  consequence  we 
are  able,  to  an  extent  not  true  of  any  pre- 
ceding generation,  to  put  the  life  of  Christ 
into  its  real  historical  setting — political,  intel- 
lectual, social,  moral,  and  religious — and  so 
to  understand  more  certainly  the  precise 
meaning  of  his  acts  and  of  his  teaching.  That 
result  can  seem  unimportant  only  to  a  man 
who  refuses  to  believe  that  the  most  signifi- 
cant fact  in  the  world's  history  is  the  earthly 
life  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Nor  can  a  thoughtful  man  overlook  this 
further  most  significant  fact,  that  biblical 
theology  can  be  said  to  be  scarcely  more 
than  fifty  years  old.  The  inductive,  historical, 
systematic  presentation  of  the  teaching  of 
the  different  prophets,  of  Jesus,  and  of  his 
apostles  is  a  distinctly  modern  phenomenon. 


2O6     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

Its  results  are  now  within  reach  of  any 
reasonably  diligent  Christian  student,  though 
the  mere  reading  of  another  man's  presen- 
tation is  by  no  means  enough.  Who  can 
estimate  the  significance  for  the  kingdom 
of  God  of  the  first-hand  and  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  his 
apostles  that  might  come  to  the  body  of  the 
church  through  the  careful  study  of  such  an 
introductory  book  as  Professor  Bosworth's 
Studies  in  the  Teaching  of  Jesus  and  His 
Apostles,  issued  by  the  International  Com- 
mittee of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations  ? 

Neither  the  church  nor  its  ministry  or 
teachers  can  be  said  yet  to  have  faced  the 
full  responsibility  that  is  upon  every  disciple 
of  Christ  to  know  intelligently  and  thor- 
oughly the  life  and  teaching  of  Christ.  So 
that  Dr.  Horton  can  say,  wlt  is  the  un- 
happy delusion  of  the  church  that  it  knows 
the  teaching  of  Jesus."  But,  plainly,  to  de- 
serve the  name  of  disciples  of  Christ  at  all, 
in  Dr.  Van  Dyke's  words,  "we  must  count 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          2O7 

no  pains  too  great  to  spend  upon  the  study 
of  that  teaching  as  it  lies  in  the  records, 
and  no  effort  too  severe  to  make  in  order 
that  it  may  be  restored  in  its  integrity  and 
entirety,  rounded  and  harmonized,  within 
the  very  center  of  our  minds." 

We  profess  to  believe  that  the  supreme 
revelation  of  God  was  made  in  the  earthly 
life  of  Jesus ;  but  are  we  using  the  new 
great  opportunity  of  our  time,  historically  to 
know  that  life  ?  It  must  mean  great  things 
for  Christian  teaching  and  preaching  and 
for  the  life  of  the  church  when  the  results 
of  the  modern  return  on  the  part  of  scholars 
to  the  historical  Christ  are  fully  recognized. 
This  return  to  the  very  sources  of  our  faith 
cannot  be  in  vain.  It  is  a  reasonable  expec- 
tation that  the  best  teaching  and  preaching 
and  the  best  response  to  both  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen  lie  just  ahead  of  us. 
But  that  result  can  come,  as  has  been  said, 
only  through  direct,  first-hand,  inductive, 
historical  study  of  the  Bible,  book  by  book. 
It  is  here  that  a  man  ought  to  find  his  own 


2O8    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

communion  with  God  most  real;  his  surest 
sense  of  God's  personal  revelation  to  him, 
that  will  enable  him  in  his  teaching  and 
preaching  to  speak  out  of  his  own  experi- 
ence and  life.  Intellectual  study  alone  is,  of 
course,  not  enough ;  but  without  it  the 
inspiration  of  the  fullest  vision  of  Christ 
cannot  come.  Christianity  is  a  historical  re- 
ligion. I  need  not  say  how  fully  such  results 
as  these  require  Christian  training  of  high 
quality. 

Aside  from  the  wonderful  return  to  the 
historical  Christ,  and  the  clear  recognition  of 
the  historical  spirit  in  Bible  study  generally, 
the  characteristics  of  our  time  that  ought  most 
to  affect  our  putting  of  the  truth  probably 
are  that  it  is  a  questioning  and  undogmatic 
age,  and  a  scientific  age.  These  concern  both 
the  Christian  teacher  and  the  evangelist ;  but 
the  full  appreciation  of  the  phenomena  is 
preeminently  the  task  of  Christian  education. 

(2)  A  Questioning  and  Undogmatic  Age. — 
In  a  questioning  and  undogmatic  age  it  con- 
cerns every  Christian  witness,  first  of  all,  to 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          2OQ 

see  clearly  that  all  truths  are  not  of  equal 
importance  or  of  equal  certainty,  and  to  be 
sure  that,  in  his  message  to  his  time,  the 
really  essential  and  certain  are  not  weighted 
down  with  the  subsidiary  and  doubtful.  It 
is  quite  possible  to  be  so  anxious  to  press 
some  minor  truth  as  seriously  to  obscure  for 
many  the  really  vital  things.  No  theory 
about  Adam,  ancient  or  modern,  can  ever 
deserve  to  be  coordinate  with  the  revelation 
of  God  in  Christ. 

The  same  consideration  may  well  lead  a 
man  to  draw  a  sharp  line  between  the 
direct  and  unmistakable  teachings  of  Jesus, 
and  his  own  or  any  other's  added  inferences 
and  speculations.  For  his  own  intellectual 
peace  one  may  need  the  added  speculations; 
but  authority  belongs  not  to  them  but  only 
to  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  To  carry  a  man 
to  the  discipleship  of  Christ  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  carry  him  to  all  the  intricacies  of 
any  theological  or  philosophical  system. 
Many  things  are  important,  but  only  a  few 
are  of  prime  importance.  This  means,  of 

N 


2IO    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

course,  large  liberty  of  individual  interpreta- 
tion ;  but  from  that  a  living  church  has  no 
cause  to  shrink,  and  it  must  shrink  from 
any  lowering  of  the  authority  of  its  Lord. 

(3)  A  Scientific  Age. — But  the  most  di- 
rect suggestions  in  this  line  for  the  man 
who  wishes  to  be  an  effective  witness  for 
Christ  today  connect  themselves  with  the 
peculiarly  scientific  temper  of  our  times. 
This  temper  probably  affects  all  minds  today 
more  or  less  consciously.  And  no  man  who 
wishes  to  reach  men  may  wisely  ignore  the 
essential  demands  of  the  scientific  spirit.  It 
is  not  meant  at  all  that  the  Christian  teacher 
or  preacher  must  be  widely  informed  in 
science ;  but  he  must  know  scientifically  his 
own  great  themes.  And  there  is  the  more 
need  of  insistence  upon  this  point,  because 
the  natural  temperament  of  the  spiritual 
witness  tends  to  theoretical  vagueness  and 
to  an  unwillingness  to  use  practical  means ; 
whereas  the  very  spirit  of  science  is  found 
in  the  recognition  of  the  universality  of  law, 
and  in  the  determination  strictly  to  trace  all 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          211 

effects     back     to     their    precise    elementary 
conditions. 

If  the  Christian  witness  now  is  to  be  able 
to  meet  this  scientific  temper,  he  must  know 
and  be  able  to  state  the  great  laws  of  the 
spiritual  world,  remembering  that  his  prob- 
lem lies  in  the  sphere  of  personal  relations. 
He  must  see  with  some  clearness  and  defi- 
niteness  the  precise  conditions  upon  which 
the  sense  of  reality  of  the  spiritual  world 
depends,  be  they  personal,  ethical,  psycho- 
logical, or  physiological ;  above  all,  never  for- 
getting that  self-control  is  always  positive. 
(And  the  educational  work  of  the  Associations 
has  made  real  contributions  in  all  these 
respects.)  He  must  get  some  real  appreci- 
ation, as  he  will  then  be  sure  to  do,  of  the 
complexity  of  life  and  of  the  indispensable 
need  of  time  and  of  growth  in  the  spiritual 
life.  And  he  will  then  discern  that  strain  has 
no  rightful  place  in  the  religious  life ;  that 
the  business  of  the  religious  teacher  or 
preacher  is,  not  to  stir  men  to  a  hysterical 
strain,  but  to  bring  them  to  a  steady,  rational 


212    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

recognition  of  laws,  to  a  faithful  fulfilment 
of  conditions,  which  can  be  known  and 
stated,  and  which  will  certainly  give  results 
in  time,  in  feeling,  in  intellectual  apprecia- 
tion, and  in  life. 

Emphasis  on  the  Teaching  Side. — All  this 
means,  necessarily,  a  new  emphasis  on  the 
teaching  side  in  all  religious  work,  for  one 
cannot  deal  chiefly  in  exhortation  and  still 
make  clear  the  laws  and  conditions  of  a  true 
spiritual  life.  And  yet  the  most  effective 
exhortation  is  often  a  clear  putting  of  the 
laws  under  which  we  must  live  out  our  life. 
These  laws,  it  should  be  noted,  are  primarily 
those  of  personal  relations,  and  contain  in 
themselves  the  strongest  appeal.  And  it  is 
just  here  that  the  religious  worker — whether 
teacher  or  evangelist — will  be  best  able  fully 
to  meet  the  scientific  demand  for  the  recog- 
nition of  law  and  growth,  earlier  noticed, 
and  at  the  same  time  do  full  justice  to  a 
deep  inner  religious  life.  But  I  feel  certain 
that  commonly  the  feeling  and  will  of  men 
are  stirred  by  preaching  and  Sunday-school 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THB    REVIVAL          213 

teaching  beyond  the  point  where  they  know 
how  to  act  intelligently.  More  or  less  con- 
sciously they  are  crying  out  for  definite  in- 
struction. They  are  exhorted  vaguely  to  some 
course  of  conduct;  but  no  definite  statement 
is  given  them  of  the  precise  steps  through 
which  they  are  to  enter  upon  that  course. 
Such  vague  exhortation  is  almost  worse  than 
useless,  for  feeling  and  desire  have  been 
aroused  only  to  be  fruitlessly  dissipated.  And 
we  need  to  remember  that  it  is  as  true  of 
the  Sunday-school  lesson  or  the  sermon  as 
of  the  theater,  that  the  stirring  of  emotion 
that  gets  no  expression,  that  is  not  put  into 
act,  tends  only  to  a  weak  sentimentalism.  It 
is  of  the  highest  importance,  therefore,  that 
the  way  to  the  expressive  act  shall  be  made 
unmistakably  clear. 

A  moment's  consideration  of  the  need  of 
the  young,  moreover,  should  make  it  plain 
that  the  extreme  reaction  from  expository 
and  proper  doctrinal  teaching  and  preach- 
ing cannot  be  justified,  but  that  the  teaching 
side  constantly  deserves  a  large  place.  The 


214     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL    ELEMENTS    IN    EDUCATION 

comparatively  young  constitute  not  only  a 
large,  but  by  far  the  most  hopeful  portion 
of  the  field  of  any  religious  worker.  And 
it  is  vain  to  expect  to  make  of  them  intel- 
ligent and  reliable  Christians  without  much 
clear  and  definite  instruction.  The  ease  with 
which  great  numbers  of  Christians  are  swept 
into  Christian  Science  and  other  exegetical 
and  religious  extravagancies  and  vagaries 
surely  betrays  the  lack  of  earlier  well-grounded 
Christian  instruction.  Nor  is  a  revival  of  the 
catechetical  class,  however  wisely  conducted, 
enough ;  the  Sunday-school  work  and  the 
preaching  must  contain  more  real  teaching. 
A  Historical  Catechism. —  If  we  are  not 
quite  to  fail  in  our  real  duty — especially  to 
the  young,  but  not  to  the  young  alone — we 
must  face,  more  seriously  than  most  Protestant 
churches  have  recently  done,  the  work  of  the 
Christian  teacher.  There  should  be,  no  doubt, 
something  like  real  catechetical  instruction  of 
the  young,  though  for  the  very  reason  that 
Christianity  is  a  historical,  and  ethical,  and 
spiritual  religion,  this  should  be  primarily 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          21 5 

and  mainly  historical,  such  as  is  illustrated, 
for  example,  in  Dr.  Bruce's  With  Open  Face. 

Careful  Discussion  of  Elements. —  Besides 
this,  there  is  crying  need  of  much  more 
clear  exposition  of  the  elements  of  moral  and 
spiritual  and  definitely  Christian  teaching — 
a  careful  going  over  of  such  questions  as : 
What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian?  How  does  one 
become  a  Christian?  Why  should  one  be  a 
Christian?  A  wise  and  Biblical  treatment  of 
these  elementary  questions,  that  aims  at  clear- 
ing up  misconceptions  and  reaching  a  plain, 
positive  and  tangible  result,  takes  one  really 
into  the  deepest  and  most  vital  themes,  and 
would  help  not  only  those  not  Christians, 
but  tone  up  the  lives  of  Christians  them- 
selves and  make  them  in  turn  intelligent, 
helpful  witnesses  to  others.  Even  mature  and 
thoughtful  Christians  are  often  grateful  for 
a  simple,  clear,  but  suggestive  putting  of 
these  very  elements  of  the  Christian  life. 

The  Right  Kind  of  Repetition. — In  our  re- 
ligious work,  too,  we  must  not  shrink  from  the 
entirely  conscious  purposed  repetition  of  the 


21 6     PERSONAL  AND    IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

teacher.  The  great  themes  are  to  be  returned 
to,  without  apology  and  with  clear  purpose, 
again  and  again,  to  get  and  to  give  the  steadily 
deepening  view  which  can  only  so  come.  It 
is  absurd  to  expect  a  miscellaneous  class  or 
audience,  not  primarily  students,  to  get  to 
the  bottom  of  any  great  theme  through  a 
single  presentation  of  it,  however  able  and 
skilful  that  presentation  may  be.  And,  more- 
over, this  rather  small  pride  of  not  repeat- 
ing himself  makes  a  man  ingenious  in  hunt- 
ing up  much  smaller  themes  than  those  that 
ought  to  occupy  the  attention  of  himself  and 
of  his  pupils  or  people.  It  is  more  impor- 
tant to  have  a  great  theme  than  a  novel 
theme.  And,  in  truth,  the  most  engrossing 
things  are  to  be  found  in  delving  into  the 
great  rather  than  in  pursuing  the  new. 

Psychologically,  I  do  not  see  what  right 
we  have  to  expect  people  to  be  steadily 
built  up  in  Christian  truth  and  grace,  where 
the  Sunday-school  teaching  and  the  preach- 
ing do  not  definitely  build  from  week  to 
week  on  what  has  preceded,  where  there  is 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL         217 

not  some  clear  plan  and  some  real  progress. 
The  most  brilliant  set  of  miscellaneous  dis- 
courses ever  spoken  could  not  possibly  have 
the  building  power  for  either  pastor  or 
people  of  such  works  as  Dr.  Horton's  The 
Teaching  of  Jesus,  or  Dr.  Dale's  Christian 
Doctrine,  both  of  which  were  originally  pre- 
pared as  series  of  sermons  for  their  people. 
Surely  one  cannot  face  these  broad  needs 
of  Christian  living  and  thinking  without  a 
new  sense  of  the  indispensableness  of  the 
broadest  and  most  thorough  religious  train- 
ing. These  highest  interests  cannot  be 
studied  too  deeply  or  met  too  fully  in  sys- 
tematic education. 


X.    THE   NEED   OF  THE    REVIVAL 

Is  there  a  like,  real  and  permanent  need 
for  some  form  of  revival  effort? 

Assuming,  above  all,  a  wise  leadership, 
and  assuming  that  the  revival  is  carefully 
guarded,  as  I  believe  it  can  be,  against  the 
dangers  in  revivalism  that  have  been  noted, 


21 8    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

and  assuming  that  the  pressure  of  it  is  not 
put  upon  young  children,  it  seems  to  me 
that  our  answer  must  be  clearly  and  frankly 
in  the  affirmative. 

No  doubt,  with  such  guarding  certain 
somewhat  familiar  features  would  be  either 
entirely  dropped  or  greatly  modified ;  the 
points  of  emphasis  would  change,  in  some 
cases  considerably ;  the  appeal  would  be 
broader  in  its  range,  and  individual  adap- 
tation would  be  much  more  accurate  and 
delicate ;  and  great  care  would  be  taken  in 
line  with  the  suggestions  of  the  last  section 
to  give  the  message  special  effectiveness  for 
our  own  time.  It  seems  to  me  also  prob- 
able,— in  order  to  avoid,  on  the  one  hand, 
excessive  emotional  appeal,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  get  into  closer,  more  intelli- 
gent and  more  effective  touch  with  men, — 
that  less  effort  will  be  made  to  gather  im- 
mense audiences ;  but  rather  that  smaller, 
more  thoughtful  gatherings  will  be  pre- 
ferred, and  the  work  become  more  individ- 
ual and  proportionately  quieter,  deeper, 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          21 9 

more  significant,  and  more  permanent.  In 
all  lines  of  attempts  to  stir  public  interest  I 
judge  there  is  a  growing  feeling  that  the 
immense  convention  has  been  rather  over- 
done. The  aim  now  is,  rather,  thoroughly 
to  enlist  a  much  smaller  number  of  strong, 
thoughtful  men  and  work  out  upon  the 
community  through  them.  Some  such  change 
may  occur  in  the  use  of  the  revival.  But  it 
will,  I  must  think,  still  have  its  real  and 
important  place. 

i.  The  drift  of  our  entire  discussion  cer- 
tainly leads  us  to  anticipate  such  a  result. 
The  temperamental  differences  between  men, 
that  we  have  been  obliged  to  recognize, 
themselves  make  it  highly  probable  that  at 
least  a  considerable  proportion  in  any  com- 
munity will  most  easily  respond  to  some 
special  effort,  to  some  appeal  out  of  the 
ordinary,  in  some  season  that  gives  oppor- 
tunity for  their  subconscious  life  to  break 
through  into  consciousness  and  power.  For 
those  whose  temperament  preeminently  fits 
them  for  sudden  and  marked  experiences 


22O    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

some  kind  of  a  crisis  is  needed;  and  a 
revival  season  is  probably  likely  to  furnish 
the  best,  if  not  the  only  hopeful,  time  for 
their  entering  definitely  upon  the  Christian 
life.  Such  a  time  seems  almost  required  for 
such,  if  the  religious  life  is  to  be  to  them 
thoroughly  real  and  vital.  And  the  church 
must  not  repeat  its  old  mistake  of  meeting 
the  needs  of  those  of  but  a  single  tempera- 
ment ;  though  it  must  meet  the  needs  of 
those  of  the  one  temperament  in  such  a  way 
as  not  to  repel  and  endanger  those  of  the 
other. 

2.  But  more  than  this  is  true.  It  is  not 
merely  a  single  temperament  that  needs  the 
revival  method.  A  wise  revivalism  has  in  all 
probability  a  real  contribution  to  make  to  us  all. 
The  points  of  contact  noted  between  sudden 
and  gradual  conversions  would  themselves 
suggest  this.  We  found  that  no  sharp  line 
could  be  drawn  between  the  two  types  of 
conversion.  Both  had  their  significant  crises. 
And  these  critical  points  mean  much  for 
any  temperament.  Matthew  Arnold  certainly 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL         221 

was  not  given  to  over-much  emotion,  but 
even  he  could  say,  as  though,  speaking  of 
the  psychologist's  subconscious  self,  of  the 
"buried  life"  in  us  all: 

"Only — but  this  is  rare — 

When  a  beloved  hand  is  laid  in  ours, 
When,  jaded  with  the  rush  and  glare 

Of  the  interminable  hours, 
Our  eyes  can  in  another's  eyes  read  clear, 
When  our  world-deafened  ear 
Is  by  the  tones  of  a  loved  voice  caressed, — 
A  bolt  is  shot  back  somewhere  in  our  breast 
And  a  lost  pulse  of  feeling  stirs  again , 
The  eye  sinks  inward  and  the  heart  lies  plain, 
And  what  we  mean,  we  say,  and  what  we  would,  we  know ; 
A  man  becomes  aware  of  his  life's  flow, 
And  hears  the  winding  murmur,  and  he  sees 
The  meadows  where  it  glides,  the  sun,  the  breeze." 

Probably  none  of  us  are  wholly  insensible 
to  the  meaning  of  such  an  experience.  The 
moments  of  insight,  the  times  of  vision,  the 
fresh  awakening  to  the  significance  of  life  — 
these  mean  very  much  to  us  all.  And  we 
may  be  wisely  and  rationally  helped  to  them ; 
and  we  all  need  such  help. 

Four  psychological  facts  may  well  have 
weight  with  us  here : 


222     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

(1)  In   the   first  place,  the  way  in  which 
our  character   tends   to  "set   like   plaster" — 
the   comparatively  early  period   at  which  the 
psychologists  tell  us  the  most  important  life- 
habits  tend   to  establish  themselves — all   this 
is    most   earnest   emphasis    upon    the   impor- 
tance of  right  decisions  promptly  made.    We 
cannot  wisely  ignore  any  rational  means  that 
will  better  insure  such  decisions. 

(2)  Moreover,   in   his   study   of   the   will, 
James  says  that  "all  those  'changes  of  heart,' 
'awakenings     of     conscience,'     etc.,     which 
make   new  men   of   so   many   of   us   may  be 
classed"    under    that    form    of    decision    that 
comes  "when,  in  consequence  of  some  outer 
experience     or     some     inexplicable     inward 
change,    we    suddenly  pass   from    the    easy    and 
careless  to  the  sober  and  strenuous  mood."1   Now, 
if  our  greatest  decisions  do  commonly  grow 
out   of    such    moods,    the    presence    of    such 
moods  may  be  of  vital   importance.   This  is 
another  psychological  fact  we  may  well  heed. 

(3)  And  we   can  do  something   to   make 

1  Psychology,  Briefer  Course,  p.  432. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          223 

the  sober  and  strenuous  mood  possible  for 
ourselves  and  others.  No  feeling  or  mood 
can  be  directly  produced  by  willing;  but  we 
can  reach  it  indirectly  through  attention. 
Two  laws  of  attention  specially  concern  us 
here. 

In  the  first  place,  in  an  intelligent  life 
the  attention  needs  to  be  selective.  Not  our 
entire  environment  makes  us,  but  that  part 
of  our  environment  to  which  we  attend 
makes  us.  Through  selective  attention,  then, 
we  may  and  should  determine  the  elements 
of  our  environment  that  are  to  count  most 
with  us.  If  the  great  religious  facts  and 
truths  are  to  weigh  with  us  as  they  ought, 
they  must  have  attention. 

In  the  second  place,  the  greater  the 
number  of  objects  before  the  attention,  the 
less  intense  can  the  attention  to  any  one 
object  be.  Extension  prevents  intension. 
This  means  that  the  mere  multiplicity  of 
events  and  interests  in  our  lives,  even  if 
wholly  innocent  in  themselves,  inevitably 
hinders  such  attention  to  the  great  spiritual 


224     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

realities  as  shall  give  them  their  legitimate 
power  with  us.  In  other  words,  we  cannot 
expect  men  to  get  that  "firmer  hold  upon 
religious  realities,"  of  which  James  speaks, 
that  shall  give  them  the  sense  of  deliverance 
which  comes  with  a  really  unified  life,  with- 
out prolonged  and  concentrated  attention  to 
those  realities.  The  "sober  and  strenuous 
mood"  is  most  certain  to  come  only  so. 
Just  that  needed  opportunity,  now,  for  pro- 
longed and  concentrated  attention  to  the 
greatest  realities  an  intelligent  revival  would 
give.  And  there  is  no  way  in  which  we  can 
escape  these  primary  laws  of  attention.  It  is 
vain  for  us  to  expect  the  spiritual  life  to 
mean  much  to  us  while  we  give  it  no  fair 
chance  at  us. 

Even  in  the  strictest  educational  processes 
we  know  how  much  persistent  staying  in  the 
presence  of  the  great  values  means  to  us; 
how  much  at  times  an  absorbed  attention 
reasonably  extended  counts,  and  how  impos- 
sible it  is  to  get  the  same  contribution  from 
mere  scattered  bits  of  attention,  however 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL         225 

faithfully  given.  If  we  wish,  then,  religious 
interests  really  to  be  among  the  great  inter- 
ests or  the  supreme  interests  of  our  lives, 
it  is  reasonable  and  alone  reasonable  that  we 
should  give  them  occasional  times  of  pro- 
longed and  concentrated  attention,  not  only 
as  individuals  but  as  communities.  Such 
times  of  unusual  attention  to  religious  themes, 
just  as  similar  times  in  other  fields,  have,  of 
course,  their  natural  limits  that  are  to  be 
recognized;  the  same  degree  of  attention 
cannot  be  wisely  long  continued,  but  for  a 
reasonable  period  they  have  a  very  distinct 
value. 

(4)  One  further  psychological  fact  has 
its  bearing  here.  Nowhere  more  than  in  the 
determination  of  spiritual  atmosphere  do  we 
seem  members  one  of  another.  I  think  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  fact  that  many 
others  are  at  a  certain  time  giving  attention 
to  the  deepest  questions  of  life,  is  itself  of 
very  real  help  to  the  production  in  one  of 
the  "sober  and  strenuous  mood"  out  of  which 
great  decisions  may  be  born.  As  I  have  else- 
o 


226     PERSONAL  AND    IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

where  said:  "Apparently  there  is  such  a  thing, 
for  example,  as  a  spiritual  atmosphere  in  an 
audience — not,  it  may  well  be  supposed,  a 
magical  matter,  but  really  determined  by  the 
tone  of  the  minds  composing  the  audience. 
The  actual  mood  of  the  hearers  and  of  the 
speaker  makes  a  difference.  Results,  great 
and  important,  are  so  changed  often  quite 
unconsciously.  It  may  well  be  that  God  is 
the  medium  in  all  this.  The  attitude  of  the 
auditors  is  like  unconscious,  silent  praying 
to  God — the  praying  of  their  life,  of  their 
spirit."1  If  this  is  true  at  all,  it  gives  a  fur- 
ther reason  why  an  intelligent  revival  may 
bring  valuable  results  to  any  one  of  us.  Our 
friends  may  thus  perform  for  us  in  peculiar 
degree  what  Emerson  says  is  the  great  office 
of  a  friend — "to  make  us  do  what  we  can." 
It  is  very  much  to  be  brought  into  the  mood 
in  which  we  are  capable  of  our  best.  Even 
a  passing  vision  of  our  real  possibilities  may 
be  a  permanent  uplift.  We  certainly  cannot 
afford,  in  the  deepest  interests  of  our  lives, 

^Theology  and  the  Social  Consciousness,  pp.  165,  166. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          227 

to  ignore  our  membership  in  one  another. 
The  "season  of  special  religious  interest,"  as 
we  call  it,  is  in  this  respect  a  social  oppor- 
tunity of  great  significance. 

3.  And  let  me  remind  you  once  more  of 
the  important  place  of  feeling  in  all  life.  We 
have  already  seen  that  one  of  the  great  dan- 
gers of  strictly  educational  methods  in  relig- 
ion is  the  ignoring  of  feeling.  So  strongly 
does  James  feel  the  importance  of  the  place 
of  feeling  in  religion,  that  near  the  close  of 
his  long  inductive  inquiry  into  religious 
phenomena  he  says:  "You  see  now  why  I 
have  been  so  individualistic  throughout  these 
lectures,  and  why  I  have  seemed  so  bent  on 
rehabilitating  the  element  of  feeling  in  re- 
ligion and  subordinating  its  intellectual  part. 
Individuality  is  founded  in  feeling ;  and  the 
recesses  of  feeling,  the  darker,  blinder  strata 
in  character,  are  the  only  places  in  the 
world  in  which  we  catch  real  fact  in  the 
making,  and  directly  perceive  how  events 
happen,  and  how  work  is  actually  done."1 

1  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  pp.  501,  502. 


228     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

We  might  perhaps  feel  that  James  had 
here  overestimated  the  place  of  feeling;  but 
such  an  estimate  by  him  may  at  least  suggest 
that  the  fact  that  the  revival  tends  to  bring 
some  real  feeling  into  the  religious  life,  if 
this  feeling  is  rationally  stirred,  is  hardly  an 
objection,  but  may  rather  be  a  real  reason 
for  the  use  of  the  revival.  We  do  not  shrink, 
in  other  spheres  of  life — in  music,  literature, 
art,  friendship — from  feeling  that  arises  nor- 
mally in  the  presence  of  great  realities  and 
values ;  we  need  not  shrink  from  feeling 
similarly  arising  in  religion.  And  the  im- 
portance of  feeling  for  religion  as  giving  the 
sense  of  reality,  and  giving  powerful  motive 
for  action  cannot  be  wisely  overlooked. 
It  may  well  be  true,  as  Coe  says,  that  "we 
are  suffering  not  from  excess  of  emotion  in 
religion,  but  rather  from  too  little  emotion, 
from  the  narrowness  of  our  emotional 
range."  From  this  point  of  view,  too,  there- 
fore, if  the  dangers  previously  noted  are 
guarded  against,  I  cannot  doubt  that  the 
revival  has  real  psychological  justification. 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL         229 
XI.     RELIGION    AS    A    PERSONAL    RELATION 

For  myself,  the  conception  that  best 
brings  together  all  the  types  of  religious 
experience  and  best  enables  one  to  do  justice 
to  all,  that  can  include  the  sudden  and  the 
gradual  conversion  and  the  life  that  seems 
to  have  lived  always  in  the  light,  that  can 
include  the  methods  of  both  Christian  train- 
ing and  the  revival,  that  in  particular  can  do 
full  justice  to  feeling  in  religion,  and  yet 
indicate  its  plain  limits ;  and  the  conception, 
which  at  the  same  time  seems  to  me  truest 
to  the  lines  of  Christ's  own  revelation,  is  the 
conception  of  the  religious  life  as  a  personal 
relation  with  the  personal  God.  The  con- 
ditions and  laws  of  such  a  life  would  be 
those  of  a  deepening  friendship.  And  this 
thoroughly  personal  conception  seems  to  me 
best  of  all  able  to  do  justice  to  the  deepest 
elements  of  Christian  experience,  at  the 
same  time  that  it  guards  most  delicately 
against  all  possible  excesses.  It  is  able,  I 
believe,  to  take  up  into  itself  all  the  justifi- 


23O     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

able  elements  of  mysticism,  and  yet  avoid 
its  errors.  It  gives,  it  seems  to  me,  a  true 
mysticism  in  which  both  the  points  of  view 
and  both  the  methods  we  have  been  discuss- 
ing may  agree,  and,  agreeing,  keep  all  the 
very  highest  in  the  religious  life. 

Let  me  quote  here,  then,  in  conclusion,  a 
few  paragraphs  in  which  I  have  elsewhere 
tried  to  set  forth  some  of  the  elements  of 
this  true  mysticism.1  These  elements  imply, 
at  the  same  time,  a  definition  of  mysticism 
at  its  best. 

"The  justifiable  elements  in  mysticism  may 
be  said  to  include :  the  insistence  on  the  legiti- 
mate place  of  feeling  in  religion  as  a  real 
and  vital  experience ;  the  emphasis  on  one's 
own  conviction  and  faith ;  the  real  difficulty 
of  expressing  the  full  meaning  of  the  reli- 
gious experience ;  the  demand  for  a  complete 
ethical  surrender  to  God ;  and  the  faith  in 
the  real  unity  and  worth  of  the  world  in 
God.  Now,  if  one  tries  to  bring  together 
these  justifiable  elements  in  mysticism,  the 

1  Theology  and  the  Social  Consciousness,  pp.  77  and  82-84 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL          231 

truly  mystical  may  all  be  summed  up  as 
simply  a  protest  in  favor  of  the  whole  man — 
the  entire  personality.  It  says  that  men  can 
experience  and  live  and  feel  and  do  much 
more  than  they  can  logically  formulate,  de- 
fine, explain  or  even  fully  express.  Living  is 
more  than  thinking. 

Moreover,  it  probably  may  be  fairly 
claimed,  not  only,  as  has  been  already 
pointed  out,  that  this  personal  conception 
of  religion  enables  us  best  to  point  out  its 
laws,  but  also  that  all  of  the  mystical  recog- 
nition of  the  emotional  which  is  valuable  or 
even  legitimate  is  preserved,  and  far  more 
safely  and  sanely  conceived,  in  a  strictly  per- 
sonal conception  of  religion.  It  may  well  be 
doubted,  if  it  is  possible  in  any  other  way, 
both  to  do  justice  to  feeling  in  religion  and 
at  the  same  time  to  keep  feeling  in  its 
proper  place.  Is  it  possible  briefly  to  indicate 
both  the  recognition  of  emotion  and  the 
control  of  emotion  in  religion? 

The  true  mysticism  recognizes  that  the 
supreme  joy  is  'joy  in  personal  life* — joy  in 


232     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

entering  into  the  revelation  of  a  person  ;  and  it 
believes  with  reason  that  a  growing  acquain- 
tance with  God  must  have  such  heights  and 
depths  of  meaning  as  no  other  personal  rela- 
tion can  have.  It  is  not,  therefore,  afraid  or 
distrustful  of  true  emotion — of  joy  or  of  peace, 
of  intense  longing  or  of  keen  satisfaction — 
in  the  religious  life. 

But  the  true  mysticism  knows  at  the  same 
time  that  deep  revelation  of  a  person  is  made 
only  to  the  reverent,  that  the  conditions  are 
in  the  highest  degree  ethical,  and  above  all 
must  be  recognized  to  be  so  in  religion.  It 
does  view,  then,  with  deep  distrust  an  emo- 
tional emphasis  in  religion  that  ignores  the 
ethical.  It  cannot  forget  that  Christ  thought 
that  everything  must  be  tested  by  its  fruits 
in  life. 

And  a  true  mysticism  knows  that  the  spirit, 
reverent  of  personality,  leads  to  a  self-restraint 
that  does  not  seek  the  emotional  experience 
simply  as  such  on  any  conditions;  but,  know- 
ing the  supreme  psychological  conditions  of 
happiness  and  character  and  influence,  it 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE     REVIVAL          233 

loses  itself  in  an  unselfish  love,  and  in  ab- 
sorbing work,  and  in  rational  attention  to  the 
great  spiritual  realities,  and  understands  that 
it  must  simply  let  the  experiences  come.  It 
will  have  nothing,  therefore,  to  do  with 
strained  emotion,  or  with  the  working  up  of 
feeling  for  its  own  sake.  It  seeks  health,  not 
merely  the  signs  of  health.  It  prizes,  therefore, 
the  joy  that  simply  proclaims  itself  as  the  sign 
of  the  normal  life  and  so  positively  strength- 
ens and  cheers,  but  it  will  have  nothing  of 
the  strain  of  emotion  which  is  drain. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  it  is  exactly 
this  true  psychological  attitude  concerning  the 
emotional  life  that  Phillips  Brooks  believed 
that  he  found  perfectly  reflected  in  Jesus. 
r  The  sensitiveness  of  Jesus  to  pain  and  joy,' 
he  says,  T  never  leads  him  for  a  moment  to 
try  to  be  sad  or  happy  with  direct  endeavor ; 
nor  is  there  any  sign  that  he  ever  judges 
the  real  character  of  himself  or  any  other 
man  by  the  sadness  or  the  happiness  that  for 
a  moment  covers  his  life.  He  simply  lives, 
and  joy  and  sorrow  issue  from  his  living, 


234    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN  EDUCATION 

and  cast  their  brightness  and  their  gloomi- 
ness back  upon  his  life ;  but  there  is  no 
sorrow  and  no  joy  that  he  ever  sought  for 
itself,  and  he  always  kept  a  self-knowledge 
underneath  the  joy  or  sorrow,  undisturbed 
by  the  moment's  happiness  or  unhappiness." 
This  strictly  personal  conception  of  the 
religious  life  seems  to  me  to  deserve  empha- 
sis, then,  not  only  for  the  special  reasons 
implied  at  different  points  in  our  discussion ; 
but  also,  and  particularly,  because  it  fur- 
nishes a  conception  in  which  those  who 
believe  most  either  in  Christian  training  or 
in  the  revival  can  heartily  agree,  and  can 
find  all  their  greatest  positive  contentions  in- 
cluded, at  the  same  time  that  the  dangers  of 
both  methods  are  carefully  guarded  against. 
It  is  a  conception  that  cannot  justly  be 
called  either  radical  or  conservative,  but 
belongs  to  the  eternal  essence  of  the  high- 
est religion,  as  Christ  reveals  it,  and  so  may 
well  do  its  full  service  for  us  all,  of  what- 
ever point  of  view.  I  have  hoped,  especially, 
that  it  indicated  a  way  in  which  the  Young 


CHRISTIAN    TRAINING    AND    THE    REVIVAL         235 

Men's  Christian  Association  might  be  true 
to  its  splendid  achievements  and  its  best 
traditions  in  both  lines  of  Christian  work, 
and  might  go  forward  to  still  larger  achieve- 
ments, through  an  intelligently  guarded  and 
intelligently  cooperative  use  of  both  meth- 
ods— Christian  training  and  the  revival. 


HOW    TO    MAKE    A    RATIONAL    FIGHT 
FOR    CHARACTER 

IN  trying  to  point  the  way  to  a  rational 
fight  for  character,  let  it  be  clear  from  the 
start,  that  there  is  no  attempt  here  to  find 
some  lower  substitute  for  Christ  and  the 
great  motives  of  religion,  but  rather  posi- 
tively to  state  those  conditions  of  all  kinds, 
involved  in  our  very  natures,  which  we  need 
to  heed  if  Christ  and  the  great  Christian 
truths  are  to  have  the  power  with  us  they 
ought  to  have. 

Any  man  who  believes  that  God  is  the 
Creator  of  him,  body  and  mind,  must  also 
believe  that  in  some  true  sense  God  has 
expressed  himself  in  the  very  nature  of 
man's  being.  God  does  not  mean  to  ignore 
the  conditions  involved  in  our  natures,  nor 
may  we.  He  has,  doubtless,  not  contra- 
dicted himself  in  the  double  revelation  of 
himself  in  our  being  and  in  Christ.  And 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  237 

the  great  revelation  in  Christ  will  mean  most 
to  us,  only  as  we  heed  most  carefully  the 
laws  of  our  natures.  Not  through  deliberate 
disobedience  to  those  laws,  but  through 
careful  heeding  of  them,  are  we  to  come 
into  character  and  life.  We  are  not  to 
forget,  then,  that  the  laws  of  this  being 
of  ours  are  laws  of  God,  and,  therefore, 
sacredly  to  be  observed. 

In  calling  careful  attention  to  the  consti- 
tutional conditions  under  which  we  all  have 
to  live  out  our  lives,  I  strive  simply  to 
answer  a  question  that  was  brought  me 
some  time  ago  by  an  old  pupil  of  mine,  who 
said,  "What  are  we  to  do  in  those  poorer 
moments  when  the  higher  motives  have  lost 
their  appeal?"  That  is  the  question. 

i.  In  the  first  place,  it  seems  to  me,  that 
at  that  lower  moment  when  it  looks  as  if 
everything  were  failing  one,  it  is  well  for  a 
man  to  say  to  himself  with  all  seriousness, 
"Everything  is  now  at  stake;  it  is  fight  or 
die."  That  is  the  situation.  A  friend  of 
mine,  with  the  marks  of  a  serious  disease 


238    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

upon  him,  consulted  a  distinguished  spe- 
cialist. The  physician,  after  going  carefully 
over  his  case,  said  to  him:  "I  think  the 
disease  has  not  gone  so  far  but  that,  if 
you  will  rigorously  follow  this  regimen 
which  I  prescribe  for  you,  you  can  still  pull 
through."  My  friend  heard  him  out,  and 
said,  "Why,  doctor,  I  should  simply  die  if  I 
had  to  live  under  that  regimen."  The  doc- 
tor somewhat  gruffly  turned  upon  him  and 
said,  "Well,  die  then."  He  had  just  that 
one  chance.  Let  a  man  say  to  himself,  in 
like  manner,  in  one  of  those  lower  mo- 
ments when  he  is  likely  to  be  engulfed  by 
temptation,  "It  is  fight  or  die." 

It  is  a  very  significant  thing  that,  in  all 
branches  of  the  Christian  Church,  the  old 
shallow  talk  about  sin  has  ceased,  and 
that  there  is  no  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church,  today,  that  dreams  of  sweeping 
multitudes  of  men,  without  reference  to  their 
condition,  into  heaven  and  the  presence  of 
God.  Men  have  come  to  see  that  to  be 
saved  is  to  share  the  life  of  God,  and  to 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  239 

share  the  life  of  God  is  to  share  his 
character,  and  so  to  share  his  blessedness; 

that    God    means    to    save    us    to    character. 

_^  ---. „._.» 

and  that  there  is,  therefore,  no  way  out  for 
any  man  except  by  coming  into  character. 
There  is  no  other  salvation.  In  his  poorer 
moments,  then,  let  a  man  say  to  himself, 
"I  have  simply  to  let  myself  go  on  along 
this  line  in  which  I  am  now  tempted,  to 
have  it  all  over  with  me, — to  be  lost,  abso- 
lutely lost."  For  men  have  come  to  see  to- 
day, as  they  never  saw  before,  that  the  very 
utmost  that  any  man,  by  any  possible  way 
of  thinking,  could  promise  anybody  in  the 
future  life  is,  that,  at  much  greater  pains, 
under  greater  difficulties,  traveling  a  longer 
way  back  to  God,  he  might  have  oppor- 
tunity to  do  just  that  which  now  he  ought 
to  do.  There  is  no  escape  in  the  universe 
of  God  but  by  character.  We  are  shut  up 
to  that.  Everything,  then,  is  at  stake  in 
temptation. 

2.    Moreover,  I  think  a  man  ought  to  ask 
himself   in   these   lower   moments,   Why   the 


24O     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

lower  moments?  And  the  second  suggestion, 
therefore,  that  I  have  to  make  is :  Keep 
yourself  persistently  at  your  best.  You  have  no 
right  to  have  these  lower  moments  contin- 
ually breaking  in  upon  your  life.  Just  as  in 
health  that  is  the  secret,  so  here  in  character 
it  is  the  secret.  You  are  to  guard  conditions 
and  strive  to  keep  yourself  at  your  very  best. 
Not  "tolerable"  health,  but  superb  health, 
what  Emerson  called  "plus  health,"  must  be 
the  aim.  In  the  same  way,  no  man  can  be 
certain  of  character  who  is  willing  barely  to 
keep  the  breath  of  moral  and  spiritual  life 
in  him,  and  is  not  aiming  persistently  at  the 
very  best  of  which  he  is  capable,  and  there- 
fore conscientiously  observing  the  conditions 
that  will  keep  him  at  his  best.  It  is  the 
subtle  gradual  deterioration  which  we  are 
to  fear  as  we  fear  death. 

3.  In  the  third  place,  if  we  are  to  fight 
rationally,  we  need  definitely  to  consider  the 
conditions  under  'which  we  live, —  bodily ,  mental, 
and  of  association. 

(i)    And,   first,  a  rational  fight  for  char- 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  241 

acter  has  its  bodily  conditions.  I  suppose  there 
is  hardly  a  clearer  lesson  in  all  modern 
psychology  than  the  unity  of  man,  mind  and 
body.  One  may  like  it  or  one  may  not  like 
it;  it  makes  no  difference.  We  are  not  now 
disembodied  spirits,  whatever  we  may  be 
hereafter;  we  are  in  the  body;  we  have  to 
get  on  with  our  body;  and  we  have  to  study 
the  conditions  of  our  body,  if  we  expect  to 
make  such  achievements  as  we  ought  to 
make  in  our  moral  and  spiritual  life.  And 
these  conditions  are  not  far  off.  Let  no  man 
think  that  they  are  unimportant.  What  is 
the  problem  of  character?  The  problem  of 
character  is,  ultimately,  the  problem  of  self- 
control.  That  which  distinguishes  you  from 
the  animal  below  you,  and  that  which  dis- 
tinguishes you  as  a  sane  man  from  an  insane 
man,  is,  to  no  small  degree,  this  power  of 
self-control.  The  animal,  James  says,  has  a 
"hair- trigger  constitution."  What  does  he 
mean  by  that?  He  means  simply  that  the 
animal,  having  an  impulse,  must  yield  to  it; 
but  as  a  human  being  you  can  hold  yourself 


242    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

in  check,  and  not  yield  to  impulse,  through 
attending  to  some  other  considerations. 

Self-control  is,  then,  the  root -virtue  of 
all  virtues.  It  is  at  the  very  center  of 
character.  But  the  center  of  self-control, 
of  course,  is  will.  And  the  center  of  will 
is  attention.  For  if  this  temptation  which 
now  besets  you  is  not  to  sweep  you  off 
your  feet,  what  must  be  done?  You  must 
be  able  in  the  presence  of  the  temptation 
to  hold  your  attention  fixed  upon  those 
higher  considerations  that  ought  to  prevail, 
but  seem  now  in  danger  of  not  prevailing; 
and  if  you  can  do  that,  you  are  safe ;  and  if 
you  can  not  do  it,  you  are  lost. 

The  center  of  character  is  self-control. 
The  center  of  self-control  is  will.  The 
center  of  will  is  attention.  Now  what  has 
all  this  to  do  with  the  body?  Just  this.  The 
greatest  cause  of  fatigue  is  attention ;  that  is 
what  tires  more  than  anything  else.  It  takes 
nervous  energy  to  attend;  and  the  supreme 
condition,  therefore,  of  power  of  attention, 
so  far  as  the  body  is  concerned,  is  surplus 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  243 

nervous  energy.  That  is  the  whole  problem. 
Character,  self-control,  will,  attention, —  its 
supreme  physical  condition,  surplus  nervous 
energy.  One  has  no  right,  then,  as  a  man 
who  means  to  fight  an  honest  moral  fight, 
to  disregard  the  conditions  through  which 
he  is  to  get  surplus  nervous  energy.  That 
means  that  he  will  definitely  plan  for  it, 
that  he  is  going  to  see  to  it  that  he  gets 
sleep  enough,  to  see  that  he  gets  exercise 
enough,  to  see  that  he  attends  to  all  those 
conditions  that  have  to  do  with  surplus 
nervous  energy;  especially,  that  he  will 
avoid  every  species  of  excess,  particularly 
emotional  excess ;  and  that  he  will  thus 
honestly  before  God  do  what  he  can  to 
keep  in  himself  surplus  nervous  energy. 
Then  he  will  have  a  margin  of  capital, 
with  power  to  attend,  with  power  to  will, 
with  power,  therefore,  of  self-control.  The 
danger  of  fatigue  is,  then,  manifest.  The 
record  of  Saturday  nights  in  this  world  of 
ours  is  a  tragic  record ;  because  that  is  the 
time  when  men  are  run  down,  at  their  worst 


244    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

physically,  and  when,  therefore,  they  are 
most  exposed  to  every  temptation. 

Now,  one  can  not  always  control  the 
conditions.  There  will  be  times  when,  in 
spite  of  all  precautions,  a  man  will  find 
himself  necessarily  and  rightly  fatigued. 
But  one  is  then  to  bear  in  mind  that  at 
that  time  he  is  to  be  specially  on  his  guard 
against  sudden  onsets  of  temptation.  There 
is  nothing  more  clear  in  modern  psychology 
than  that  the  weakest  in  us,  bodily,  mental, 
moral,  tends  to  come  out  in  these  moments 
of  fatigue ;  and  that,  therefore,  at  these  mo- 
ments we  are  to  guard  ourselves  with  special 
care  against  sudden  temptation. 

Sometimes  one  comes  to  the  beginning 
of  the  day  with  the  consciousness  that  he  is 
plainly  not  at  his  best,  that  he  is  on  a  low 
physical  plane,  that  it  is  going  to  be  hard 
for  him  to  be  what  he  ought  to  be  that 
day.  That  is  the  day  when  one  can  know 
he  has  a  fight  on  hand.  One  must  prepare 
for  it  from  the  very  beginning  and  watch 
it  to  the  end. 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  2*5 

(2)  In  the  second  place,  there  are  men- 
tal conditions  to  be  carefully  considered,  if 
one  is  to  fight  his  moral  battle  rationally. 
For  it  is  not  only  true  that  we  are  one, 
body  and  mind,  but  it  is  also  true  that  this 
mind  of  ours  is  in  a  wonderful  degree  one ; 
and  the  unity  of  the  mind  makes  it  im- 
perative that  there  should  not  be  lack  at 
any  single  point.  We  do  rtot  know  when 
we  are  sapping  the  foundations.  Let  me 
take  simply  two  or  three  illustrations  of  the 
need  of  heeding  this  unity  of  our  mind, 
where  many  might  be  taken. 

And,  first,  you  can  not  play  with  your 
memories  and  be  what  you  ought  to  be  as 
moral  men.  There  are  men,  for  example, 
who  like  so  well  to  tell  a  good  story  that  it 
grows  continually  on  their  hands,  and  they 
simply  get  where  they  can  not  tell  the  truth 
if  they  want  to.  You  know  what  happens 
under  such  circumstances.  These  men  can- 
not trust  their  memory.  Now,  the  power  of 
holding  yourself  in  the  presence  of  tempta- 
tion often  depends  upon  this :  that  you  are 


±46     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

able  to  recall  vividly  and  with  scrupulous 
accuracy  the  exact  results  of  your  previous 
experience ;  and,  if  you  have  played  fast  and 
loose  with  your  memory,  it  will  play  you 
false  in  the  hour  of  peril. 

And  note  this  other  danger — vagueness  of 
thought.  If  you  allow  yourself  in  it,  you  are 
not  simply  interfering  with  your  intellectual 
growth ;  you  are  doing  something  to  sap  the 
foundation  of  your  moral  life ;  for  the  moral 
life  is  made  up  of  a  series  of  volitions  that 
involve  the  definite  choice  of  definite  means 
to  definite  ends ;  and  vagueness  of  thought, 
vague  promises,  vague  aspirations,  do  not  go 
well  with  that  kind  of  direct,  definite  willing 
that  belongs  to  character. 

Especially,  in  this  matter  of  mental  con- 
ditions, do  not  forget  the  necessity  of  the 
power  of  attention ,  and  remember  that  any- 
thing that  you  do  at  any  time  really  to 
strengthen  your  power  of  concentrated 
attention  is  so  much  added  to  your  moral 
capital,  and  anything  you  do  at  any  time  to 
break  down  your  power  of  attention  is  so 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  247 

much  further  preparation  for  disaster.  If, 
then,  you  form  the  habit  of  going  into  your 
college  lectures  day  after  day  and  dreaming 
of  the  ends  of  the  earth  while  you  are  there, 
you  are  not  merely  not  doing  your  work  as 
you  ought  to  do  it,  but  you  are  doing  some- 
thing to  break  down  this  power  of  attention 
upon  which  your  character  depends.  On  the 
other  hand,  every  time  you  hold  yourself 
rigorously  to  the  task  that  is  appointed  to 
you  for  the  time,  definitely  attend  to  it  and 
carry  it  through  with  concentrated  attention, 
you  are  adding  to  your  power  to  resist  temp- 
tation. The  human  spirit  is  not  a  bundle, 
but  an  organic  unity,  and  you  cannot  break 
down  the  mental  and  not  affect  the  moral. 

(3)  Character  has  besides  and  preemi- 
nently conditions  of  association.  Here  we  touch 
upon  what  is  really  the  supreme  condition 
of  all  conditions.  We  know  but  one  abso- 
lutely certain  way  to  make  character,  and 
that  is,  through  surrendering,  persistent  asso- 
ciation with  those  who  have  such  a  char- 

,  .  •^^•^•^••HPFWi"** 

acter   as   we    seek.    That    is    the    only  way. 


248     PERSONAL  AND    IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN  EDUCATION 

Character  is  caught,  not  taught.  It  can  not 
be  given  in  lectures.  But  if  you  put  your- 
self side  by  side  with  the  man  who  has  the 
spirit  that  you  want,  and  surrender  yourself 
with  open-mindedness  to  the  association 
with  him,  you  will  assuredly  catch  his  char- 
acter. But  you  can  get  it  in  no  other  way. 
We  shall  need  to  return  to  this  greatest  of 
all  conditions  later  from  a  little  different 
point  of  view. 

4.  Moreover,  in  our  fight  for  character 
we  need  to  remember  that  self-control,  which 
is  at  the  very  center  of  character,  in  spite 
of  its  name,  is  always  positive,  never  nega- 
tive. I  think  many  men  have  made  disas- 
trous mistakes  at  this  point. 

(i)  That  means,  first,  on  account  of  the 
relation  of  mind  to  body,  that  one  is  to  seek 
positive  help  from  the  body.  I  think  Browning 
has  that  in  mind  in  the  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra 
when  he  says: — 

"To  man  propose  this  test: 
Thy  body  at  its  best, 
How  far  can  that  project  thy  soul 
On  its  lone  way?" 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  249 

I  do  not  think  that  this  is  a  skeptical, 
cynical  question ;  but  I  think  it  is  a  chal- 
lenge, "a  godlike  challenge  in  the  night  to 
our  too  reluctant  wills."  Any  man  who 
means  to  be  the  man  he  can  be  in  character 
must  say,  "I  am  going  to  get  positive  help 
out  of  this  body  of  mine." 

And  if  that  is  to  be  true,  he  must  make 
his  body  the  best  instrument  that  he  can 
make  it  for  the  spirit,  the  very  best  medium 
for  the  spirit  to  work  out  through.  I 
suppose  that  it  ought  to  be  true  that  a  series 
of  photographs  of  a  man  taken  from  year  to 
year  through  his  life  ought  to  show  that  the 
spirit  is  increasingly  dominating  the  body, 
and  that  the  light  of  the  spirit,  yea,  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  is  increasingly  shining  out 
through  his  face  and  bearing  and  mien. 

The  man  who  intends  to  get  the  most 
help  from  his  body,  will,  besides,  make  his 
body  the  very  best  foundation  that  he  knows 
how  to  make  it  for  the  varied  demands  of 
life,  broadly  laid,  deeply  laid  and  well  laid. 

He  will  further  see  to  it  that  his  bodily 


25O     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

exercise  is  a  direct  aid,  as  it  may  be,  to 
intellectual  and  will  training.  For  all  the 
higher  forms  of  bodily  exercise,  Romanes  tells 
us,  are  exercises  even  more  of  the  higher 
brain  centers  than  of  the  muscles.  Make 
your  body  help  your  soul;  make  your  body 
project  your  soul  on  its  lone  way.  One  can 
sit  down  passively  before  nature  and  regard 
it  as  a  limitation,  if  he  will ;  or  he  can  say, 
By  the  study  of  the  laws  of  nature  I  will 
learn  its  secrets,  and  I  will  make  nature 
serve  me.  And  one  can  do  just  that  with 
reference  to  his  body. 

Your  body,  once  more,  is  an  immediate 
trust  from  God  for  which  you  are  respon- 
sible;  and,  in  the  sight  of  God,  you  are  to 
cultivate  not  only,  as  one  says,  "the  grace  of 
a  blameless  body,"  but  you  are  to  cultivate 
the  grace  of  a  positively  helpful  body. 

(2)  Moreover,  if  self-control  is  to  be 
positive,  one  must  remember  that  control  of 
the  emotions  is  always  indirect.  You  can  not 
directly  determine  whether  you  shall  feel  or 
not.  Emotion  spontaneously  arises  in  the 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  251 

presence  of  its  object.  That  you  can  not  help  ; 
but  you  can  direct  your  attention  to  another 
object.  The  small  boy,  who  is  looking 
through  a  fence  at  a  patch  of  watermelons 
that  is  not  his,  can  not  prevent  his  mouth 
from  watering,  but  he  can  run.  And  you  can 
not  keep  your  emotions  from  arising  in 
attention  to  the  exciting  object,  but  you  can 
think  of  something  else.  You  are  not  clay  in 
the  hands  of  your  circumstances.  You  were 
endowed  with  that  which  makes  you  akin 
to  God  in  his  creative  power — a  will.  You 
can  use  that  will  in  attending  to  something 
other  than  this  object  which  now  works 
upon  your  emotions.  We  are  often  told, 
today,  that  our  environment  makes  us.  That 
is  a  dangerous  half  truth.  The  whole  truth 
is  this :  Not  your  environment  makes  you, 
but  that  part  of  your  environment  to  which 
you  attend  makes  you.  The  same  environ- 
ment means  very  different  things  to  different 
men.  Why?  Because  different  men  are 
attending  to  different  things  in  it.  Let  ten 
men  travel  over  exactly  the  same  route  in 


252     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN  EDUCATION 

Europe ;  do  they  come  back  with  the  same 
impressions?  By  no  means.  Each  man  has 
seen  and  gotten  what  he  attended  to. 

You  are,  then,  to  control  your  emo- 
tions indirectly  through  attention  to  some 
other  object.  You  may  also  control  your 
emotions  by  acting  in  the  line  of  those  emo- 
tions that  you  think  you  ought  to  have.  At  a 
given  time,  for  example,  a  man  may  be  feel- 
ing far  from  cheerful  and  without  courage. 
This,  at  least,  he  can  do :  he  can  take  a 
good,  long  breath,  and  stiffen  up  his  back- 
bone, and  put  on  the  mien  of  cheer  and 
courage,  and,  so  doing,  he  is  far  more  apt 
to  become  cheerful  and  courageous.  There 
are  two  sorts  of  selves  in  you,  a  lower  and 
a  higher.  You  can  be  true  to  your  higher 
self,  or  you  can  be  true  to  your  lower  self. 
But  you  are  bound  to  be  true  and  loyal  to 
your  higher  self,  to  the  very  highest  vision 
that  is  given  you.  And  one  of  the  sensible, 
helpful  ways  to  get  the  emotions  you  think 
you  ought  to  have  is  to  act  in  the  line  of 
them.  It  is  to  no  man's  credit  to  act  as  ill 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  253 

as  he  feels.  He  is  rather  bound  often  to  act 
much  better  than  he  feels.  And  so  acting, 
he  will  be  helped  to  better  feeling. 

(3)  In  the  third  place,  positive  self-control 
means  that  you  are  to  attend,  as  I  have  al- 
ready implied,  to  something  else  than  the  temp- 
tation which  threatens  to  engulf  you,  to  re- 
place that  tempting  thought  with  some  other. 
Do  not  merely  fight  a  thought.  You  can  not 
get  rid  of  a  thought  —  this  envious,  foul, 
or  hateful  idea  that  is  in  your  mind — by 
simply  saying,  "I  won't  think  of  that  another 
minute."  All  the  while  you  are  saying  this, 
you  are  persistently  keeping  it  in  mind,  you 
are  thinking  of  it.  You  can  get  rid  of  it  in 
just  one  way — by  thinking  of  something  else. 
You  must  take  the  positive  way  out.  The 
law  is  merely  this  —  it  is  a  very  simple  law: 
You  can  not  have  an  empty  mind,  and  you 
can  not  think  of  two  things  with  concentra- 
ted attention  at  the  same  time.  As  you  try 
to  follow  this  suggestion,  it  may  seem  to  you 
that  you  can  think  of  two  things  at  the  same 
time,  but  you  will  be  mistaken.  The  trouble' 


254    PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN    EDUCATION 

is  in  lack  of  concentrated  attention.  When 
you  seem  to  be  thinking  of  two  things  at 
the  same  time,  you  are  really  thinking  first 
of  one  thing  then  of  another  —  letting  the 
thought  you  ought  to  hold  be  broken  in  on 
continually  by  the  tempting  thought.  Only 
keep  your  attention  steadily  fixed  upon  the 
consideration  that  ought  to  hold,  and  it  will 
hold  you. 

(4)  And,  in  the  fourth  place,  positive  self- 
control  means  that  we  are  to  heed  that 
principle  which  the  psychologists  call  the 
impulsiveness  of  consciousness;  that  is,  that  every 
thought,  by  its  very  presence  in  the  mind, 
tends  to  pass  into  act,  and  will  do  so  if  it  is 
not  hindered  by  the  presence  of  some  other 
thought  leading  in  some  other  direction. 
That  principle  is  of  very  great  importance 
in  all  our  moral  and  spiritual  life.  If  you 
are  sitting  in  the  parlor  of  a  friend,  while 
you  are  waiting  for  him,  and  there  is  an  open 
letter  on  the  table,  and  you  are  not  think- 
ing particularly  of  what  you  are  doing,  but 
have  your  eye  on  the  letter,  before  you  know 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  255 

it  you  will  very  likely  put  out  your  hand 
and  take  it  up  and  begin  to  read  it,  until 
you  recall  yourself  with  a  start.  The  single 
idea,  unchecked  for  the  moment  by  any 
other,  was  present  in  the  mind  ;  it  passed 
into  action  almost  in  spite  of  you.  The 
teaching  of  modern  psychology,  then,  is 
that  a  thought  in  your  mind  will  pass  into 
act  unless  it  is  checked  by  some  other 
thought;  and  for  our  moral  life  this  is 
strenuous  counsel  to  withstand  beginnings.  Do 
not  dally  with  the  temptation.  Do  not  tarry 
in  the  presence  of  it.  Do  not  do  in  thought 
the  act  to  which  you  are  tempted.  Avoid 
the  least  thought  of  it.  The  thinking  has  its 
immediate  bodily  effect  and  has  its  imme- 
diate tendency  to  pass  into  act.  Consequently, 
when  you  dally  with  temptation,  when  you 
see  how  far  you  can  go  in  imagination  with- 
out toppling  over  the  precipice  of  overt  sin, 
you  are  simply  heating  some  brain  center, 
and  getting  a  thought  ready  to  discharge 
into  act.  What  is  it  but  playing  with  sparks 
over  a  powder  mine,  nay,  putting  one's 


256    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

finger  on  the  trigger  of  a  gun  and  begin- 
ning to  press  it,  and  yet  expecting  it  not 
to  discharge,  when  one  keeps  thinking  of 
the  thing  he  ought  not  to  do,  and  still  hopes 
to  be  kept  from  it.  All  this  is  only  in  line 
with  the  Scripture:  "Keep  thy  heart  with  all 
diligence";  "Resist  the  devil,  and  he  will 
flee  from  you";  "Every  man  is  tempted, 
when  he  is  drawn  away  of  his  own  lust,  and 
enticed." 

But  we  can  withstand  the  beginnings  of 
evil,  once  more,  only  by  conquering  this 
tempting  thought  that  is  with  us  now  by 
attending  to  some  other  thought.  Anything 
that  supplants  the  tempting  thought  will  help, 
if  it  isn't  anything  more  than  running,  or 
saying  the  multiplication  table.  There  was 
seen  some  time  ago,  in  the  city  of  Denver,  a 
man  running  as  for  his  life  through  the 
suburbs  of  that  city.  I  suppose  an  onlooker 
would  have  found  it  rather  hard  to  explain 
what  that  man  was  running  for.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  he  was  fighting  for  his  life  with  the 
liquor  habit,  and  the  appetite  was  strong 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  257 

upon  him  just  then.  He  could  not  stop  to 
consider  or  argue  the  matter  at  all ;  he  knew 
just  one  thing — he  must  get  out  of  the 
range  of  the  saloons.  It  was  a  help  to  run. 
Of  course,  I  need  not  say,  it  is  far  better 
and  far  safer  than  to  trust  to  the  trivial  sup- 
planting thought,  to  be  able  to  bring  the 
great  considerations  before  you — the  highest 
motives,  the  inspiring  personalities,  the  great- 
est person,  Christ.  In  fact,  the  very  difficulty 
in  temptation  is  to  make  the  consideration 
which  would  check  the  temptation  stay  in 
mind.  It  needs  the  strongest  motives  and 
interests.  The  lesser  ones  seldom  avail.  Is 
there,  then,  no  person  the  thought  of  whom 
will  help  you  in  the  presence  of  this  tempta- 
tion—  your  mother,  your  child,  your  wife, 
your  noblest  friend,  Christ  Jesus  himself 
— that  can  pluck  you  out  of  the  power  of 
this  temptation?  God  has  rescued  many  a 
man  in  dire  temptation  through  the  thought 
of  some  others  whom  he  loved,  and  who 
loved  him.  Sometimes,  when  one  feels  des- 
perately that  he  has  no  care  of  the  conse- 
Q 


quences  for  himself,  the  thought  of  another 
who  believes  in  him,  who  trusts  him,  though 
it  is  only  a  little  child,  will  deliver  him  as 
from  the  mouth  of  the  pit.  And,  let  us  keep 
it  real  to  our  minds  that  no  one  cares  so 
much,  loves  so  much,  or  trusts  us  so  fully 
as  Christ. 

(ij)  And  positive  self-control  will  mean, 
further,  that  you  are  to  resist  the  evil  'with  the 
good;  that  you  are  not  simply  to  stop  doing 
evil  things  because  they  are  evil,  but  that 
you  are  to  get  into  the  attitude  that  Spinoza 
calls  the  attitude  of  the  freeman,  and  have 
done  with  the  evil  because  you  have  some- 
thing a  great  deal  better  to  do.  Change 
your  negatives  into  opposite  positives.  I  have 
little  hope  for  a  man  who  goes  through  his 
life  saying,  "What  is  the  harm?"  What  kind 
of  attainment  can  a  man  make  in  his  moral 
life,  if  his  one  great  question  is,  What  is 
the  harm?  and  if  he  does  not  replace  that 
question  with  this  other,  What  is  the  very 
best  thing  that  is  now  open  for  me  ?  For, 
next  to  the  evil,  the  good  is  the  worst 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  259 

enemy  of  the  best.  We  must  try  Chalmers' 
"expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection." 

And  that  will  mean  that  every  temptation 
we  shall  take  as  a  positive  opportunity ;  and  it 
may  be  just  that.  And  when  next  you  are 
under  the  pressure  of  strong  temptation, 
remind  yourself  that  you  have  the  opportu- 
nity now  to  prove  your  loving  loyalty  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  You  have  your  oppor- 
tunity of  conquest,  of  victory.  You  have 
your  opportunity  for  progress  in  the  direc- 
tion opposite  to  the  temptation.  It  is  an 
opportunity,  real  and  great.  I  suppose  it  is 
some  such  thought  as  this  that  St.  James 
has  back  of  his  words:  "Count  it  all  joy, 
my  brethren,  when  ye  fall  into  manifold 
temptations ;  knowing  that  the  proof  of 
your  faith  worketh  patience" — steadfastness. 
"And  let  patience  have  its  perfect  work, 
that  ye  may  be  perfect  and  entire,  lacking 
in  nothing." 

5.  In  the  next  place,  if  we  are  to  make 
a  truly  rational  fight  for  character,  we  need 
to  remember  that,  body  and  mind,  we  are 


260    PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL  ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

made  for  action.  The  body,  one  of  our  psy- 
chologists tells  us,  is  only  a  machine  for 
converting  stimuli,  coming  into  the  brain 
by  the  afferent  nerves,  into  reactions,  go- 
ing out  by  the  efferent  nerves.  And  the 
principle  of  the  impulsiveness  of  conscious- 
ness shows  with  equal  clearness  that  in 
mind,  too,  we  are  made  for  action.  Every 
idea  tends  to  pass  into  action.  We  are 
made,  then,  for  action.  This  is  the  real  jus- 
tification of  the  far  slower  methods  of  the 
laboratory  and  seminar  in  modern  education. 
One  must  do,  to  know.  It  is  not  enough 
passively  to  receive  an  idea;  if  it  is  really 
to  be  yours,  you  must  express  it  in  some 
way,  you  must  put  it  into  act.  Your  idea  or 
ideal  is  not  fully  yours  until  you  have 
expressed  it.  The  resulting  law  for  character 
is  clear  and  unmistakable:  That  which  is  not 
expressed  dies.  If  you  would  kill  an  idea, 
deny  it  absolutely  all  expression;  it  will  die. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  you  have  an  idea  that 
you  wish  to  live,  to  be  a  reality,  you  must 
express  it.  You  may  not  rest  content  with 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  26 1 

fine  thoughts,  and  fancies,  and  sentiments, 
and  feelings,  and  aspirations.  If  you  are  not 
willing  to  become  mere  sentimentalists,  you 
must  put  them  into  act.  Some  of  us  have 
been  in  the  habit  of  speaking  of  the  danger 
from  the  theater  and  from  novel  reading,  in 
arousing  emotions  and  sentiments  that  we 
simply  allow  idly  to  be  dissipated.  We  need 
to  remind  ourselves  that  the  same  law  holds 
for  emotion  and  sentiment,  however  aroused, 
whether  by  theater,  or  novel,  or  concert,  or 
lecture,  or  sermon.  If  you  have  been  stirred 
to  moral  feeling  in  any  way,  as  you  prize 
your  moral  life,  see  to  it  that  your  feeling 
gets  some  real  and  tangible  expression, — put 
it  into  act. 

This  principle  of  expression  has  this 
further  application  of  central  importance. 
Christ  wishes  to  save  you  into  his  own  life 
of  ministering,  self-sacrificing  love.  The 
character  into  which  you  must  come,  then, 
is  that  of  self-sacrificing  love.  But  you 
cannot  live  the  life  of  love  alone.  If  you 
are  really  to  love,  you  must  show  it,  you 


262     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

must  express  it;  you  must  yourself  enter 
upon  some  ministering,  some  redeeming 
activity,  of  your  own  for  another.  You  can, 
then,  make  no  hopeful  fight  for  your  own 
character,  without  beginning  at  once  a 
service  for  others.  In  some  of  our  asylums, 
I  am  told,  some  of  the  less  insane  are  set 
to  care  for  cases  a  little  more  serious ;  and 
the  men  find  in  this  responsibility  for  others 
not  only  distraction  of  attention  from  their 
own  cases,  but  a  constant  strong  motive  to 
self-control,  and  so  best  win  back  their  own 
sanity.  In  like  manner  he  will  be  most 
surely  redeemed  into  the  loving  character 
who  enters  most  heartily,  himself,  into  loving 
service  for  others  —  into  real  redeeming  work. 
This  is  no  doubt  one  of  the  chief  keeping 
forces  for  the  converts  in  city  mission  work. 
6.  And,  finally,  the  ease  with  which^  under 
temptation,  you  can  direct  attention  to  the  highest 
motives  will  depend  upon  your  previous  interests 
and  habits  of  thought.  Consequently,  every  bit 
of  time  that  a  man  spends  in  the  positive 
pursuit  of  higher  things,  in  the  presence  of 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  263 

the  best  things,  getting  habituated  to  them, 
staying  persistently,  above  all,  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ — every  bit 
of  time  so  spent  is  positive  preparation  for 
temptation.  Give  the  best  persistently  a 
chance  at  you.  The  evil  wrought  in  a  man's 
imagination  by  a  single  vile  story  may  well 
illustrate  the  power  that  the  persistent  good 
may  have.  Christ's  apt  use  of  the  Scripture 
in  his  temptations  shows  that  there  had 
been  habitually  deep,  earnest  dwelling  on 
the  best  things,  that  stands  him  now  in 
stead.  It  is  no  superficial  quoting  that  he 
does.  So  the  Spirit  of  God,  let  us  be  sure, 
will  use  with  us  in  temptation  that  part  of 
his  Word  that  we  have  earnestly  and  prayer- 
fully put  beforehand  into  our  thought  and 
life.  That  is  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  in 
temptation.  The  habitual,  earnest  use  of  the 
Bible,  thus,  not  only  gives  God  a  chance  at 
us  at  the  time  of  our  study,  but  also  gives 
later  help.  It  is  one  of  our  most  practicable 
ways  of  associating  with  Christ.  In  the  light 
of  the  principles  we  are  now  considering, 


264     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

Paul's  counsel  to  the  Philippians,  which 
seems  at  first  quite  lacking  in  urgency,  gets 
its  full  justification:  "Finally,  brethren, 
whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things 
are  honorable,  whatsoever  things  are  just, 
whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things 
are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good 
report;  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there 
be  any  praise,  think  on  these  things."  Give 
them  habitually  a  place  in  your  thought,  and 
it  will  be  enough.  The  rest  will  care  for 
itself.  The  mind  readily  recurs  to  its  habitual 
associations. 

And  so  we  return  once  more  to  that 
which  is  the  foundation  of  all,  and  the  one 
unfailing  way  to  character — persistent  asso- 
ciation with  Christ.  The  only  effective  road 
to  character  we  know,  is  through  personal 
association  with  the  best.  The  dynamic  is 
finally  personal  always ;  in  it  God  graciously 
allows  the  lesser  personalities,  down  to  the 
latest  Christian,  to  share ;  but  the  fully 
adequate  power  for  the  production  of  the 
highest  character  is  only  in  the  greatest 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  265 

person,  Christ.  Only  as  men  put  themselves 
persistently,  habitually,  in  his  presence,  is 
character  secured.  And  a  man  is  to  do  this, 
not  vaguely  and  with  mere  mystical  emotion, 
but  with  earnest,  intelligent  determination 
to  know  with  thoroughness  and  appreciation 
the  earthly  historical  manifestation  of  God 
in  Christ  —  to  become  saturated  with  the 
spirit  and  teaching  of  Jesus  until  he  has 
caught  his  convictions  of  God  and  the  spiritual 
world,  and  has  come  to  share  his  feeling 
toward  God  and  man,  and  has  taken  his 
purposes  of  the  Kingdom  upon  him.  Only 
so,  do  we  prove  ourselves  real  learners  of 
Christ;  only  so,  are  we  faithfully  fulfilling 
the  conditions  through  which  we  may  abide 
in  Christ  and  Christ  in  us,  and  through 
which  the  Spirit  may  take  the  things  of 
Christ  and  show  them  unto  us.  Christ 
means,  so,  personally  to  deliver  us.  And  a 
man  may  count,  as  upon  the  very  laws  of 
the  universe,  upon  the  certain  results  of 
persistent  association  with  Christ. 

Under   temptation   one  needs   the   strong- 


266     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN    EDUCATION 

est  motives.  Now  the  most  powerful  forces 
in  life  are  personal ;  and  of  all  personal  rela- 
tions, the  incomparable  one  —  that  which 
gives  meaning  and  value  to  all  the  rest,  that 
which  has  the  capacity  to  become  for  any 
man  who  enters  heartily  upon  it  the  mas- 
tering power  of  his  life — is  the  relation  to 
God  in  Jesus  Christ.  Here  and  here  alone 
is  the  greatest  dynamic  for  character  and 
life;  and  so  Christ  says,  "Abide  in  me 
and  I  in  you."  "Apart  from  me  ye  can  do 
nothing." 

Let  me  summarize  briefly  a  number  of 
other  considerations  that  may  well  weigh 
with  a  man  in  his  fight  for  character. 

(i)  In  the  first  place,  call  the  temptation 
by  its  right  name.  And  upon  this  point  hear 
one  of  our  great  American  psychologists, 
Professor  William  James,  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity:— 

"Where,  however,  the  right  conception 
is  an  anti-impulsive  one,  the  whole  intellectual 
ingenuity  of  the  man  usually  goes  to  work 
to  crowd  it  out  of  sight,  and  to  find  for 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  267 

the  emergency  names  by  the  help  of  which 
the  dispositions  of  the  moment  may  sound 
sanctified,  and  self  or  passion  may  reign 
unchecked.  How  many  excuses  does  the 
drunkard  find  when  each  new  temptation 
comes !  It  is  a  new  brand  of  liquor  which 
the  interests  of  intellectual  culture  in  such 
matters  oblige  him  to  taste ;  moreover  it  is 
poured  out  and  it  is  a  sin  to  waste  it;  also, 
others  are  drinking  and  it  would  be  churl- 
ishness to  refuse.  Or  it  is  but  to  enable  him 
to  sleep,  or  just  to  get  through  this  job  of 
work;  or  it  isn't  drinking,  it  is  because  he 
feels  so  cold ;  or  it's  Christmas  day ;  or  it  is 
a  means  of  stimulating  him  to  make  a  more 
powerful  resolution  in  favor  of  abstinence 
than  he  has  hitherto  made;  or  it  is  just 
this  once,  and  once  does  not  count,  etc.,  etc., 
—  ad  libitum — it  is  in  fact,  anything  you 
like,  except  being  a  drunkard" — You  would 
not  believe  that  a  man  could  offer  such 
excuses  to  himself,  even  if  a  psychologist 
did  say  it,  if  you  had  not  been  guilty  of 
just  such  unspeakable  folly  yourself  with 


268     PERSONAL  AND  IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN  EDUCATION 

reference  to  your  own  temptations. — "That 
is  the  conception  that  will  not  stay  before 
the  poor  soul's  attention.  But  if  he  once 
gets  able  to  pick  out  that  way  of  conceiving 
from  all  the  other  possible  ways  of  conceiv- 
ing the  various  opportunities  which  occur, 
if  through  thick  and  thin  he  holds  to  it  that 
this  is  being  a  drunkard  and  is  nothing  else, 
he  is  not  likely  to  remain  one  long.  The 
effort  by  which  he  succeeds  in  keeping  the 
right  name  unwaveringly  present  to  his  mind 
proves  to  be  his  saving  moral  act." 

And  so,  with  reference  to  your  tempta- 
tions. If  you  are  a  student,  have  you  been 
doing  your  studying,  for  example,  in  a  way 
that  you  know  is  not  right?  Then  see  to  it 
yourself.  Call  it  by  the  right  name.  Do 
not  call  it  "ponying"  and  do  not  call  it  any- 
thing else  but  lying,  living  a  lie.  There  are 
many  other  things  in  your  college  life  and 
in  all  living  to  which  you  can  apply  the 
same  line  of  thought.  Call  the  temptation 
by  its  right  name. 

(2)    In    the   second  place,  learn  yourself, 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  269 

and  yet  without  undue  introspection.  You 
can  not  go  by  others.  The  fact  that  a  thing 
is  safe  for  another  man  does  not  prove  that 
it  is  safe  for  you.  Reduce  the  occasions  of 
temptation  to  a  minimum. 

(3)  In    the    third   place,    fill    your    time 
with  positive  service  and  good.    Do  not  drift. 
Have  definite  things  on  hand   to  do. 

(4)  Remember,  in  the   fourth   place,  the 
promise    of    God    that    you     shall     not    be 
tempted    above    that  you  are  able.    Do   not 
make  the  miserable  weakling's   excuse,  that 
you  can  not  help  it.   You  can  help  it.    "God 
is    faithful  who    will   not   suffer  you    to    be 
tempted    above   that    ye   are   able ;   but  will 
with   the   temptation   make   also   the   way  of 
escape."   And   I  think  I  may   appeal  to  the 
consciousness  of  every  man  that,  when  under 
strenuous  temptation  he  has  still   yielded,  as 
he  looks  back  upon  it,  he  can  see  that  there 
was  a  certain  point  when   God,  as  it  were, 
held    the    temptation    in    lull     and     showed 
him  a    clear   way    out     and     he    refused   to 
take  it. 


27O     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION 

(5)  And   lay  solemnly  to  heart  that  other 
counsel   of  Paul:   "Let  him  that  thinketh  he 
standeth  take  heed   lest  he  fall."  Few  things 
are  so  stumbling  as  our  conceit  of  ourselves. 
Keep,  I    pray    you,    the    sense    of    constant 
dependence ;  apart   from   Christ  you  can   do 
nothing. 

(6)  And  next,  forget  the  things  which  are 
behind.    It    may    be    failure    or    it    may    be 
success   that  lies  back   of  you ;    in  any  case, 
we   are   not  to  live   in  the   past;    forget   the 
things  that   are   behind.    Press  forward.    Dis- 
couragement is    of    the   devil.    Sometimes   a 
man  is  likely  to  feel  that  he  is  in  a  particu- 
larly   religious    frame    of   mind   when    he    is 
discouraged.    Nevertheless,  nobody  profits  by 
your  discouragement  but  the  forces  of   evil. 

(7)  If    you   do   fall,    go   back   at  once  to 
Christ.    Here,  again,  I  think  many  of  us  are 
often  misled.   We  think  that   it   is  not   quite 
respectable  and  fairly  Christian  to  go  directly 
back  to  the  true  life  in  relation  to  God  and 
men;  we  think  we  should  continue  for  days, 
perhaps,    what    is    really    a    false    penitence. 


A    RATIONAL    FIGHT    FOR    CHARACTER  27 1 

The    true    penitence    is    shown    in    prompt 
surrender   to   duty. 

(8)  And   if  you  even  doubt  whether  you 
are  a  Christian  at  all,  do  not  debate  it,  but 
be  one  now.   That  is  the  whole  of  the  matter, 
so  far  as  you  are  concerned. 

(9)  And     remember    that     other    golden 
word  of    Cecil's:   *  Duties   are   ours;   events 
are  God's."   You  are  not  responsible  for  the 
results;  you  are   responsible   for  the   duties. 
Leave  the  rest  with  God.    Do  not  carry  his 
burden. 

(10)  And   do  not  forget,  finally,  the  help 
of   suffering.   You  will   come  to  praise   God 
that    at  certain  times   He   put   you    in   fiery 
trial.    wYe  have  not  yet  resisted,"  the  writer 
of    the   Hebrews   says,  "unto  blood,  striving 
against    sin."   And,  sometimes,   it    seems    as 
if   it  were  only  through  suffering  that  some 
temptation  loses  its  power  over   us.    w Foras- 
much then  as  Christ  suffered    in   the    flesh, 
arm  ye  yourselves  also  with  the  same  mind." 

And  this  is  life — temptation,  trial,  struggle, 
conflict,  possible  victory — the  strenuous  life! 


272     PERSONAL  AND   IDEAL   ELEMENTS  IN   EDUCATION 

You  can  not  cowardly  give  up.  And  you 
need  all  the  help  you  can  have ;  and  the 
only  adequate  help  is  Jesus  Christ.  If  there  is 
one  man  in  history  who,  above  all  other  men, 
I  think,  may  be  called  a  man  of  mighty 
will,  it  is  the  apostle  Paul — certainly  he  was 
no  weakling;  but  it  was  this  man  of  mighty 
will  who  said,  "O  wretched  man  that  I  am! 
who  shall  deliver  me  out  of  the  body  of 
this  death?"  He  found  but  one  deliverer: 
"I  thank  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord." 


INDEX 


Action,  emphasis  on,  as  affecting  conception 
of  religious  life,  143  rt. 

Activity,  expressive,  one  of  four  main  infer- 
ences from  modern  psychology,  30,  105 ;  a 
chief  means  in  college  education,  $2-58; 
physical,  52;  intellectual,  53;  Esthetic, 
$4;  social,  moral  and  religious,  5$;  a 
chief  means  in  religious  education,  119- 
126;  in  temptation.  251,  259-261. 

Esthetic  education,  44-4$;  as  related  to 
religion,  78  0. 

Age,  our,  the  preeminent  religious  task  of, 
136  f7;  need  of  acquaintance  with,  202- 
212;  the  historical  spirit  in,  204-208;  a 
questioning  and  undogmatic  age,  208— 
aio;  a  scientific  age,  210-212. 

American  Journal  of  Rtligiout  Psychology 
and  Pedagog},  quoted,  94. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  quoted,  221. 

Athletics,  43-44. 

Atmosphere  of  college,  $7. 

Attention,  two  laws  of,  223,224;  need  of,  in 
temptation,  246,  247. 

Augustine,  quoted,  loa. 

Beautiful,  the  relation  of  the,  to  religion,  79. 

Biblical  theology  a  recent  growth,  205. 

Bodily  conditions  in  temptation,  240  ff.  248- 
450. 

Bosworth's  Studies  in  the  Ttachinf  of  Jtiui 
and  Hit  Apottlu,  referred  to,  206. 

Boy  Problem,  The,  quoted,  19;,  196;  re- 
ferred tO,  2OI. 

Brierley's  Problems  of  Living,  quoted,  99. 

Briggs,  Dean,  referred  to,  3. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  quoted,  233. 

Browning,  quoted,  79,  248. 

Bruce'i  ff  tth  Open  Fact,  referred  to,  215. 

Butler,  President  N.  M.,  quoted,  2;  re- 
ferred to,  26. 


Carlyle,  quoted,  toz. 

Catechism,  danger  of  dogmatic,  12$,  126; 
should  be  historical,  214. 

Catholic  spirit  needed  in  education,  51, 
63,  74- 

Cecil,  quoted,  271. 

Character,  how  to  make  a  rational  fight  for, 
236-272. 

Christ,  lives  of,  since  183$,  20$;  return  to 
the  historical,  207-208;  association  with, 
chief  help  in  temptation,  257,  264  ff. 

Christianity,  as  furnishing  a  test  of  educa- 
tion, 16;  democratic,  114;  conception  of, 
increasingly  ethical,  142  ft. 

Coc,  quoted,  103,  228;  referred  to,  163, 
168  ;  his  Spiritual  Lift,  reference  to,  201. 

College,  function  of  the,  4  ff;  its  function 
defined,  13;  college  and  university,  22; 
why  college  ideal  obscured,  24-25;  rela- 
tion to  professional  and  technical  school, 
12  ff. 

College  education,  changes  in,  2  ff;  prob- 
lem of,  2  0;  function  of,  4  ff;  the  argu- 
ment for,  10  ff;  ends  of,  not  met  by  sec- 
ondary education,  19  ff;  age  in,  21;  dan- 
gers in,  to  be  guarded,  28;  cannot  react 
to  older  college,  28;  needs  to  combine 
best  of  old  and  new,  29;  the  great  meant 
in,  30  ff,  36-62;  its  opportunity  defined, 
31;  haste  in,  to  be  deprecated,  3$;  need 
of  complex  environment,  36  ff ;  discriminat- 
ing breadth  in,  37-38;  physical,  42-44; 
aesthetic,  44-4$;  social  and  moral,  46-47; 
religious,  4"-?i:  expretiive  activity,  a 
chief  means,  $2-58:  personal  association, 
•  chief  means,  $8-62;  the  spirit  needed 
in,  31  ff,  63-69;  catholic,  51,  63;  demo- 
cratic, 59,  65;  objective,  63;  of  social 
consciousness,  65  ff;  reverence  of  person, 
66  ff. 


274 


INDEX 


Complexity  of  life,  one  of  four  main  infer- 
ences from  modern  psychology,  30,  105; 
bearing  on  college  education,  36  ff; 
bearing  on  religious  education,  106. 

Concreteness  of  the  real,  one  of  four  great 
inferences  from  modern  psychology,  30, 
105. 

Congregationalitt,  The,  referred  to,  zoz. 

Consciousness,  impulsiveness  of,  to  be 
heeded  in  temptation,  254  ff. 

Convictions  and  ideals  as  ends  in  educa- 
tion, 82. 

Cramming,  35. 

Culture  in  education,  49;  needed  for  ap- 
preciation of  religion,  78. 

Dale's  Christian  Doctrine,  referred  to,  217. 
Democratic   spirit    should    characterize  a 

college,  59;     nourished    by  the   public 

schools,  113. 

Education,  college,  1-70;  organized,  aim 
of,  5;  elementary  and  secondary,  6;  for 
living,  9,  13;  as  tested  by  psychology, 
14;  by  sociology,  15;  by  philosophy.  15 ; 
by  Christianity,  16;  why  must  be  liberal, 
16  ff;  judgment  as  an  end  in,  17;  appre- 
ciation of  values,  as  an  end  in,  18;  age 
in,  22;  means  in,  36  ff;  spirit  needed  in, 
31,  6;  t?;  physical,  42-44;  .esthetic,  44- 
4;;  social  and  moral,  46-47;  religious, 
47-51;  and  religion,  72-83. 

Edwards,  referred  to,  130. 

Emerson,  referred  to,  47. 

Emotions,  control  of,  indirect,  250-151. 

Ethical  conception  of  Christianity,  grow- 
ing, 142  ff. 

Ethics  and  religion,  83-89;  involves  reli- 
gion, 84;  involved  in  religion,  84. 

Evangelism,  why  more  difficult  just  now, 
132-144;  138  ff,  140.  See  Revival. 

Evolution,  influence  of  idea  of,  in  concep- 
tion of  divine  method,  140  ff,  162  ff. 

Fairbairn,  A.  M.,  quoted,  98,  138. 
Fairchild,  President,  referred  to,  168. 
Feeling,  need  of,  in  religion,   178,  227  ff; 
important  place  of,  in  all  life,  227  ff. 


Finney,  referred  to,  130,  168. 

Fiske,  John,  referred  to,  87;    on  our   age, 

135- 

Forbush,  quoted,  19$. 
Fox's  Journal,  referred  to,  99. 

" Godless"  education,  77. 

Goodman,  referred  to,  199. 

Granger,  quoted,  103;  his  Soul  of  a  Chris- 
tian, referred  to,  201. 

Growth  and  law,  influence  of  ideas  of,  on 
conception  of  divine  method,  140  ff,  162  ff. 

Herrmann,  quoted,  146,  180. 
Historical  catechism,  needed,  214  ff. 
Historical  spirit  in  Bible  study,  as  affecting 

religious  education,  118. 
Historical  spirit  of  our  time,  204-208. 
Holy  Spirit,   superstitious   conception    of, 

188-191. 
Horton,  quoted, 206;  his  ftaehing  of  Jeiut , 

referred  to,  217. 
Hughes,  H.  P.,  quoted,  99. 

Ideals  and  convictions,  as  ends  in  educa- 
tion, 8z. 

Imagination,  need  of,  in  moral  education, 
46;  in  religious  education,  118. 

Impulsiveness  of  consciousness,  need  of 
heeding  in  temptation,  254  ff. 

Inauguration  of  college  presidents,  I. 

Inner  life,  need  of  deep,  181  ff. 

Intellectualism,  may  be  narrow,  138  ff ;  may 
be  excessive,  42,  176  ff. 

Internationa!  Journal  of  Ethics,  quoted,  104. 

James,  William,  quoted,  144,  157,  160,  161, 
162,  163,  165,  222,  227,  266;  referred  to, 
168. 

Judgment,  as  an  end  in  education,  17. 

Kaftan,  referred  to,  78,  100. 

Kidd,  quoted,  98. 

Keeping  persistently  at  one's  best,  240. 

Law  and  growth,  influence  of  ideas  of,  on 
conception  of  divine  method,  140  ff, 
162  ff. 


INDEX 


275 


Leu  ha,    Professor,    quoted,    89;     investiga- 
tions referred  to,  04,  95. 
Liberal  training,  40  ff. 
Life-calling  and  religion,  91. 
Lotze,  quoted,  170. 

Macaulay,  quoted,  88. 

MacDonald,  George,  quoted,  81,  104. 

Martineau,  quoted,  9]. 

McKinley,  Rev.  C.  E.,  quoted,  196-197. 

Mental  conditions  in  temptation,  145-247. 

Memory,  in  temptation,  245. 

Moody,  referred  to,  150. 

Moral  backbone  in  education,  46. 

Moral  education,  46-47. 

Moral  endeavor  and  religion,  9], 

Muller,  Julius,  quoted,  156. 

Mysticism,  a  true,  i?o  ff. 

Nash,  Professor,  quoted,  96. 

"Necessity  of  thought,"  38. 

Nervous  energy,    surplus,    chief    physical 

condition  of  self-control,  241  ff. 
Ifevi       Evangelism,       The,       Drummond's, 

quoted,    195-196;    referred  to,  200;    the 

author's  articles  on,  used,  202  ff. 
Newman's  A  polo  f  ia  fro  fit*  Sum,  referred 

to,  99. 
"New  Puritanism,"  87. 

Objectivity,  needed  in  college  education,  63 

6;  needed  in  religious  education,  127  ff. 

Orr's   Tht  Christian   Vitw  of  God  and  the 

World,  reference  to,  171. 
Over-organization,  danger  of,  180. 

Paulien,  quoted,  91. 

"  Paternal  "  education,  68. 

Pedagogy,  modern,  bearing  on  religious 
education,  105  ff. 

Person,  the  primacy  of,  in  college  educa- 
tion, I  ff;  reverence  for,  needed  in  col- 
lege education,  66  ff;  in  religious  educa- 
tion, 126  ff;  in  revivals,  191-197. 

Personal  association  a  chief  means  in  col- 
lege education,  58-62;  in  religious  edu- 
cation, 112-119;  power  in  temptation, 
247,  248,  157,  262  ff,  264  ff. 


Personal  relation,  religion  as,  229-23$. 

Pficiderer,  quoted,  171. 

Philosophy,  as  furnishing  a  test  of  educa- 
tion, i$. 

Physical  education,  42. 

Place  of  Christ  in  Modern  fheologj,  quoted, 
138. 

Positive  method  needed  in  temptation,  248- 
259. 

Professional  school,  relation  to  college,  32. 

Psychological  investigation  of  religious  ex- 
perience, 148-176;  bearing  on  revival, 
221-227. 

Psychology,  as  furnishing  a  test  of  educa- 
tion, 14,  30  ff;  as  giving  conditions  of 
richest  life,  101 ;  four  great  inferences  of 
modern,  30,  105;  bearing  on  religious 
education,  105  ff. 

Public  schools,  their  service  in  religious 
education,  113  ri*. 

Puritans,  87. 

Questioning  and  undogmatic  spirit  of  our 
time,  208-210. 

•Rabbi  Ben  Exra,  quoted,  248. 

Reasoning,  religious  convictions  underlie, 
90. 

Religion  as  a  personal  relation,  229-23$; 
gives  a  justifiable  mysticism,  229  ff. 

Religion,  need  of,  47  ff;  its  fundamental 
nature,  71-104,  101  ff;  and  education, 
72-83;  and  ethics,  83-89;  and  life,  89- 
104;  comparison  of,  with  education,  as 
to  aims,  72;  as  to  means  and  spirit,  73; 
as  to  method,  77;  as  to  results,  82; 
catholic  spirit  needed,  7$;  its  apprecia- 
tion requires  culture,  78;  of  Protestant 
Anglo-Saxon,  89;  and  the  claim  on  life, 
101 ;  as  a  personal  relation,  229-23$. 

Religious  convictions,  logically  underlie 
reasoning,  90;  all  work  worth  doing,  91 ; 
all  strenuous  moral  endeavor,  93;  all 
earnest  social  service,  9$. 

Religious  education,  as  conditioned  by 
modern  psychology  and  pedagogy.  105- 
128;  end  of,  108  ff,  145;  chief  means  in, 
personal  association  and  work,  in  ff; 


276 


INDEX 


problem  of.  III;  personal  association,  as 
a  chief  mean*  in,  111-119;  service  of 
public  schools  in,  in  ff;  effective  wit- 
nessing in,  117;  imagination  in,  118; 
work  as  a  means  in,  119-126;  children's 
societies  in,  izi,  uz;  chores  in,  123; 
religious  exercises  in,  12}  ff ;  the  spirit 
of,  126-128;  summary  on,  128;  compared 
with  the  revival  method,  129-235: 

pressure  of  the  question,  129-132; 
causes  of  changed  feeling,  132-144; 
the  precise  problem,  144-146;  opposing 
solutions,  146-148;  temperamental  dif- 
ferences, 148-162;  is  suddenness  a 
sure  mark  of  the  divine  working  ?  162- 
176;  dangers  of  merely  educational 
methods,  176-183;  dangers  of  the  re- 
vival method,  184-198;  the  need  of 
Christian  training,  198-217;  the  need 
of  the  revival,  217-228;  religion  as  a 
personal  relation,  as  combining  both 
points  of  view,  229-23$. 
The  need  of,  198-217. 
Religious  Education  Association,  referred 

to,  107,  198,  201. 

Religious  experience,  the  true  tests  of,  164- 
169;  two  leading  types,  157  ft;    compara- 
tive advantages  of  two  methods  of  con- 
version, 167  ff.    See  Temperamental  dif- 
ferences, and  Sudden  experiences. 
Resisting  evil  with  good,  158. 
Reverence  for  the  person,  needed  in  college 
education,  66  ff;  in  religious  education, 
126  ff;  in  revivals,  191-194;  Forbush  on, 
195;  Drummond  on,  195. 
Revival,  the,   compared   with   educational 
methods,  129-235:  — 

pressure  of  the  question,  129-132; 
causes  of  changed  feeling,  132-144; 
the  precise  problem,  144-146;  oppos- 
ing solutions.  146-148;  temperamental 
differences,  148-162;  is  suddenness  a 
sure  mark  of  the  divine  working  ?  162- 
176;  danger  of  merely  educational 
methods,  176-183;  dangers  of  the  re- 
vival method,  184-198;  the  need  of 
Christian  training,  198-217;  the  need 
of  the  revival,  217-228;  religion  as  t 


personal  relation,  as   combining   both 

points  of  view,  229-235. 
Need  of,  217,  228. 
Romanes,  referred  to,  250. 
Royce,  quoted,  103. 

Sabatier,  quoted,  103. 

Sanders  and  Kent's Metsagts  of  the  Profhtts, 
referred  to,  204. 

Scientific  spirit,  17. 

Scientific  spirit  of  our  time,  210-212;  need 
of,  in  the  Christian  witness,  211. 

Secondary  education,  6  ff;  moral  side  of,  7 
ft;  not  meeting  ends  of  college  educa- 
tion, 19  ff. 

Self-control,  fundamental,  241-242;  atten- 
tion in,  242;  chief  physical  condition  of, 
surplus  nervous  energy,  243-244;  always 
positive,  248-259. 

Simplicity,  true,  39-40. 

Smith,  G.  A.,  his  Book  of  the  Twelve 
Prophets,  referred  to,  204. 

Social  and  moral  education,  46-47. 

Social  service  and  religion,  95. 

Sociology,  as  furnishing  a  test  of  education, 
1$,  30  ff. 

Sophistication,  37. 

Spirit  of  college  education,  must  be  cath- 
olic, 51,  63;  democratic,  {9,  65;  ob- 
jective, 63;  of  social  consciousness,  65  ff; 
reverent  of  personality,  66  ff. 

Spirit  of  religious  education,  126-128. 

Starbuck,  referred  to,  168;  his  Psychology 
of  Ktligion,  reference  to,  200. 

Stoughton,  William,  quoted,  87. 

Sudden  experiences,  insisted  on  by  some, 
146-147;  deprecated  by  others,  147-148; 
discussed  at  length,  162-176;  why  not  to 
be  emphasized,  162-164;  the  true  tests 
of  religious  experience,  164-169;  why 
seem  significant,  169  ff;  dangers  of, 
186-188, 

Teachers  in  college,  demands  on,  66  ff. 

Teaching  side  needs  emphasis  in  preach- 
ing, 212  ff;  elements  of  Christian  life 
need  discussion.  115;  repetition  called 
for,  215  ff. 


INDEX 


277 


Technical  schools,  relation  to  college,  32  8. 

Temperamental  differences,  148-162;  illus- 
trated in  other  spheres  than  religion, 
148-156;  in  religion,  156-161;  two  fun- 
damental ways  of  coming  into  values, 
151-156;  two  corresponding  types,  157 
ff;  two  methods  of  conversion,  159  ff; 
danger  of  ignoring,  182,  184,  185,  219. 

Temptation,  motives  against,  157  ff;  condi- 
tions in,  240-148:  —  bodily,  240-244; 
mental,  145-247;  of  association,  247-248; 
memory  in,  245;  vagueness  of  thought  in, 
246;  need  of  power  of  attention  in,  246- 
247;  as  an  opportunity,  259;  additional 
considerations,  266-271. 

Theology  and  Sodal  Conicioutneu,  quoted, 
226,  230  ff. 

Transition  age,  ours  peculiarly  so,  135. 

Unity  of  man,  one  of  four  main  inferences 
from  modern  psychology,  30,  105;  bear- 
ing on  religious  education,  107. 

University  and  college,  22  ff;  why  cannot 
do  work  of  college,  2]  ff. 


Vagueness  of  thought,  moral  danger  of, 
146. 

Values,  appreciation  of,  as  an  end  in  educa- 
tion, 18;  all  finally  personal,  78;  twt 
fundamental  ways  of  coming  into,  151- 
U6. 

Van  Dyke,  quoted,  206-207. 

Varittltl  of  Rtlifious  Experience,  The, 
quoted,  144,  157.  160,  161,  162,  163,  165, 
227;  note  on,  157;  Cf.  201;  referred  to, 
201. 

Warner,  C.  D.,  referred  to,  123. 

Wesley,  referred  to,  130. 

Wesley's  Journal,  referred  to,  99. 

Whitefield,  referred  to,  130. 

Wilson,  President  Woodrow,  quoted,  27. 

Work,  a   chief  means    in    college  educ*- 

tion,  52-58;  in  religious  education,  119- 

126. 
Wundt,  quoted,  74,  86,  87,  89. 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  re- 
ferred to,  129,  199,  200,  234. 


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Theology  and  the  Social 
Consciousness 

A  Study  of  the  Relations  of  the 
Social    Consciousness  to  Theology 

By  HENRY  CHURCHILL  KING 

President  of  Oberlin  College 
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truth  of  superlative  importance  to  which  he  has  but  to  be  steadily 
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A  new  constructive  period  in  theology,  it  may  well  be 
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aims,  first,  to  show  that  such  a  reconstruction  is  needed 
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and  finally,  to  indicate  the  influence  which  these  convic- 
tions of  our  time  ought  to  have  upon  theological  concep- 
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